A Cry for Help 2
by RufusCrazy45
Summary: Sarah has found out a deadly secret that she has to learn to control before its too late, Rufus is after her and her secret, read to find out what her secret is and why Rufus wants bad enough he's willing to kill anyone who stands in his way...


**for A Cry For help**

Chapter 1

For months I've been living in hell, beaten, tortured, whipped, starved, sleep deprived. You name it. Rufus is a devil, he's in complete charge of this hell hole. I'm surrounded by hundreds of men that guard every hall and door. All of them under the command of Rufus. He keeps his victims in cell rooms. Each room has five cells each containing one victim. But for some reason he keeps me separated from the others.

One day I wake up to shouting in the hallway outside, I stand up and walk to the front of the cell,

"Put her in a cell!" I hear Rufus's voice, making chills go down my spine. I haven't seen him in a few days or so.

"All the others are filled "says a man. Silence for a few seconds,

"Then put her in with…" Rufus thinks. I cross my fingers, please be with me. "Sarah. But I want absolutely, 100% no talking and I want them on the opposite side of the room. Which means Sarah will have to be moved and I want her moved to the cell next to the door. If there is one word exchanged I better be the first to hear about it. Understood?" Rufus explains coldly

"Yes sir." says the first man. Just then the door opens and two men come in with a girl about two years younger than me and I'm 16. One man takes her to the last cell and locks her in and the other puts me in the first cell. But I don't go in without a fight. I never do anything without a fight. I shove my body weight against him, causing him to lose his grip I go to run for the door but I swings open slamming me in the nose making it bleed. I yelp and fall back onto my elbows, scraping them. I look up and see Rufus standing at the door way, pissed. I scurry backwards but I scoot into the man's legs. From there he doesn't let me move any further. Rufus steps in and slams the metal door shut. I flinch as it echoes the room.

"And where do you think you're going?" he hisses.

"Uh…" was all that came out of my mouth. He crouches down in front of me I push against the man's legs even more, desperate to get away from Rufus. He looks at the marks on my arms where the man had grabbed me, and looks at me.

"You were fighting again weren't you. " He said not looking happy. Without giving me time to respond he grabs my arm and throws my in the first cell and slams the door shut. "You little brat you're working your way to my last nerve." He hisses and leaves. I sigh and go in the corner. The view in this cell I a lot different from the other one considering that was my first cell since I came here. I look down at the other end through the cells and see that the girl is also in the corner but her back is facing the other cells. I look at her for a few minutes, I'm about to say something but remember not to talk, that I was lucky that all the other cells were filled and she was put in my room. Though I'm deeply tempted to talk to her there are a few problems that follow. Pushing my luck on not to be isolated, pain and Rufus. If we were able to talk these are the questions I would ask, what her name was, why she was here, how she got here. You know the basic questions I asked before I was separated into isolation for who knows how long. Several hours went by and I was half asleep and she was fully asleep, but I wake up to the door closing, I jolt up and look down the hall, the girl is still asleep, I look back and see who came in and see the same man from earlier. He's carrying food. My eyes light up but try not to make it obvious. But he walks right past me and to the girl. When he walks back I look at him.

"The boss said no again." And leaves. I sigh and sink back into the corner this is the 7th day in a row. Why won't Rufus feed me? He barley gives me water.

Chapter 2

Hours pass and I once again go to sleep with an empty stomach. When I wake up I see a piece of bread next to me. I hesitate to take it and pick it up. I look to the other side of the room and see the girl looking at me.

"Take it." She says ever so quietly. So that's what her voice sounds like I thought. I nod a 'thank you' and eat it. I cherish each bite as if it were my last. I'm speaking literal. Once I'm done I thank her again. "You're welcome, I over heard him say that you weren't getting any food again….what does he mean again?" her voice is so soft it's hard to hear her correctly. I hold up 7 fingers, "7? 7…days?" she asks. I nod. Her face drops, "He hasn't fed you in 7 days?" she says in disbelief, I nod. "Can you talk?" she says. I nod, "Why don't you?" and as if on cue the door opens and Rufus comes in.

"Because she knows the rules," he says walking to her as he walks past me I follow him through the cell. I look at the girl scared for her. As he approaches her she shrinks back a little.

"W-what do you mean?" she whimpers. Rufus opens her cell and corners her.

"The reason you are in here is because all the other cells in this whole building are filled. But don't worry you won't be in here for long there getting rid of some of the people so those cells are open, as for Sarah," he pauses gesturing to me, I gulp. "She's not leaving for a while. Now maybe I'll get her own isolated room some time so I can use this room. "He explains. Closing her cell and locking it. He starts to walk to me. I gasp quietly and trip backwards. When he gets to my cell his voice drops. I gulp rather loudly. The second he opens it I put my hands in front of my face as I cower in fear.

"As for you. You little brat, this is the 12th time trying to escape, and you haven't even been here for a year. It's only been 7 months." He grabs my wrist and pulls me up. By reflex I kick him where it hurt. But this didn't seem to affect him just piss him off. For he jerks me forward and opens the metal door and leads me out of the room. He leads me down many halls, as I look on both side of the hall I see signs labeling names of cell rooms. At each hall are two guards standing on each side of the wall. Every one of them looks at me and Rufus and nod their heads in respect as we walk by. Why do they respect him? I yell in my mind. We stop at a stair well and Rufus opens it as he forcefully pushes me up several floors and opens another door leading to another hall. We walk down this hall and turn left the take a right and a left. Then we halt as we stop in front of a metal door with a lock combination on it, Rufus turns me around and punches in the code. The second it opens a rush of cold air hits me. I couldn't help but pull away it was so cold. But Rufus insists I go in and grabs the back of my neck and pushes me in. I fall onto my knees and go to get up but Rufus steps on my back pushing me back down. But the floor is so cold my skin feels like it's covered in sheets of dry ice. I struggle greatly to get up. But this only makes him press harder. As he begins to crush my lungs, his voice fills the room.

"Welcome to your temporary new room. You'll get your own eventually." He says and releases me and shuts the door trapping me in an ice box. I immediately run to a corner and put my arms in my shirt sleeves and put my shirt over my legs. I begin to chatter my teeth as I can start to see my breath. Why is it so cold in here? As I sit in here in silence I listen to the rhythm my chattering teeth create. After what seemed like years which really turned out to be two or three days, Rufus opens the door and a rush of warm air fills the room. He walks over and yanks me up by my upper arm. And we walk out and go down another hall, this walk didn't take as long as the other but all the walking was agonizing considering my body is half frozen. Soon we stop at another door but this one just had a normal key lock. He pulls out a key and unlocks it. I stand semi frozen waiting for him to open it but I hear him curse under his breath. He pushes me in to a sitting position.

"Stay put." He commands. I immediately curl up into the same position that kept me semi warm for the last three days. As I continue to chatter my teeth, I've been chattering them for so long I wasn't sure if they would chip. Rufus walks just a few feet away but keeps his eyes on me, he pulls out a radio and calls for someone. "Who the hell is the new kid?" he spat on the radio.

"The new employer? Um… I believe it's Clint, sir why?" says another voice on the radio.

"The boy gave me the wrong key." Rufus hisses looking at the key he was holding.

"Alright he's getting the right one, he'll be right up." Says the man over the radio. Rufus puts his radio in his back pocket. And walks back over to me.

"I'm surprised you didn't move a muscle." He says standing over me.

"…..I..I-I'm…. F- fr-ee..z-z-z ing" I stutter greatly. I hear him chuckle.

"Yeah that room is pretty cold isn't it. I use it for slow death. It usually takes about a week for someone to freeze to death," he explains, I gulp quietly. "But don't worry this one is not that cold it can be sometimes though." He finishes, he looks to the right as do I and see a boy about 17 coming to us.

"Sorry sir, I must have grabbed the wrong one." Says the boy handing Rufus the key. Rufus snatches it out of his hand

"I should never have to repeat myself. Is that understood?" He says firmly as he un locks the door I sit next to. When he opens it I feel semi warm air flow out of the room.

"Yes sir, who's this?" he says looking at me, Rufus looks at me and yanks me up by my wrist. I wince as my cold and sore body is jerked around.

"The one I told you never to talk to." Rufus says simply as he pushes me in the room which about the size of a small office but with nothing in it but a chain bolted to the wall with a cuff at the end. The boy follows. Oh, no I said to myself I'm not about to get chained again. I put my feet out in front of me and I squirm and lash around. "Stop it!" Rufus say holding on tighter, I fight even more the closer I get to the chain.

"NO! NO! Please! Rufus no! Please!" I beg as he literally throws me down. I go to get up but he whips out a pistol and points it at my head.

Chapter 3

I should have froze but my instincts took over and I went to push past him but he pulled the trigger quickly and shot my upper arm.

"AAAAHHH!" I clench my eyes shut and clutch my shot arm and fall forward. My whole world went black. I'm woken up from the screaming pain in my arm, I sit up and look at the amount of blood I lost. I have to get out of here. I run at the door but my right legs is yanked back and I fall landing on my bad arm.

"AAH!" I cry feeling tears stream out of my eyes landing on the dry blood making it slightly moist. Suddenly I hear the door unlock I shoot back in to the corner and Rufus comes in.

"I thought I heard you." He snickers. As he walks over to me smiling, he sees me holding my bad arm and chuckles crouching down. I shrink back, as he reaches his hand out and strokes my cheek I shudder at the feeling of gentle contact, for torture is the only contact I've received for almost a whole year. When I go to move his hand away his voice drops. "Do not push my hand away." He says bluntly, I freeze. Suddenly he grabs my neck, I flinch grabbing his hand not letting go when he says. This only makes him squeeze harder, I gasp deeply as I feel my lungs start to collapse. I start to pull down but he follows and pins me on the floor. He sits on me dog style, I feel my face getting hot. I shut my eyes tight and hope for the end. "You never learn do you? Not even with a gun to your face!" He shouts pulling out a knife and lets go of my neck. I gasp deeply and cough, he stabs my side as I scream in agony. He continues to stab me in multiple places. Shoulder, sides, arms, he cuts me in the face, from my shoulder all the way down to my stomach he does this on each side. He then stands up and begins to beat me senselessly, in the gut, head, leg, face, and back. I curl up in to my safety ball which has now become a new sleeping position. And for the finish he pulls out his gun and shoots me twice in the leg and once in the left shoulder.

"AAAAAHHHH!" I screech. He stands above me admiring his work, and leaves. As I lay there motionless, bleeding, scared and dying. Slowly and painfully. For hours I lay still listening to people walk by my room. Each one I stiffen hoping and praying to god it's not Rufus. I try many times to go to sleep but the pain is too strong to ignore. A year I've been living like this. How? I don't know. As I lay on my stomach which is the only thing that doesn't hurt like hell, I stare at the blood smeared on the floor. I'm surrounded by dead silence. My eyes are heavy but I dare not let them close for god knows what will happen if I do. Pulling me out of my thoughts I hear Rufus stop at the door, I hold my breath. But he seems distracted by something and continues on walking. I sigh in immense relief. But I can hear him talking which means he hasn't wondered too far.

"Who went to get him?" I hear Rufus say. I weakly lift my head off the floor but hold in a cry of pain for I haven't moved a muscle in hours.

"Travis did, the boy went off to the market to grab something and hasn't come back." Says another voice.

"How long has he been gone?" I hear Rufus reply,

"About two hours now." Says the same voice.

"Send another man out I don't give a shit who it is I want that boy back." Rufus demands as I hear a few 'Yes sirs'. I slowly lay my head back down and at least try to close my eyes. They closed like a magnet and from there would not open.

Chapter 4

It's strange how dreams can feel so real and you think you feel physical contact but then remember it's just a dream. And then when you wake up you'd do anything to escape reality and venture back into that dream. This is what I wish could happen at a time like this. I'm woken up by the door slamming and Rufus walking in, I don't even try to go in the corner I'm so weak.

"Hmm, I was expecting you to go in the corner like you usually do." He mumbles, walking over to me. I just lay still, not saying anything. I hear him crouch down close behind me. "What's the matter, why aren't you talking?" he coos, I try moving to a corner for I feel very uncomfortable being out in the open and always will be. But the second I move my arm I wince. Even though I can't see his face I can tell he's smiling. I try to move again but a small whimper manages to escape my lips. He chuckles before speaking, "Why are you trying to move?" I say nothing and suck in the pain and quickly lift myself up but feel something crack.

"AAHH!" I yelp and fall back down, feeling a tear fall. His hand touches my arm and I instinctively cower away. "P-p-p-lease….R-ruf-fus… n-n-o m-more." I plead and start bawling, daring to look at him. For some reason his eyes are more evil than usual. What is he planning this time? He's about to say something when a man comes in panicking. Rufus rolls his eyes and looks at me.

"What?" he says remaining his eyes on me. .

"….Uh.. we found the boy but…" the man pauses.

"But what?" Rufus stands up I try to move again but he steps on my back and puts pressure on me. I groan,

"But he sort of called the cops" the man trails off. I can almost picture the look on Rufus's face. But out of nowhere I blurt out

"HEEELLP!" which earned me a nasty kick to the side of the head, "AAHH! HEELP! PLEASE HELP!" I can't stop myself the second he said cops hope filled my body. Maybe I'll be saved.

"SHUT UP!" Roars Rufus. As he pulls me up by my now infected shot shoulder. I scream in pain but now that I know there is help coming I start to fight again. Despite the feeling of my bones and muscles burning in my body I fight with all my might. "Stop it! Don't get your hopes up too high it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen. Luckily I thought head of time." He says, un locking me from the chain. As he picks me up my body feels like a beaten rag-doll. He leads me out into the main hall where he starts throwing out demands.

"I want all the kids put in transport vans and driven far from here, once everyone has exited the mountain, I want this place blown up and burn to the crisp. Do I make myself crystal clear?!" he shouts. Everyone says yes sir and scatter like roaches. He pulls me as I fight like no other. We come to a double door and open it to a large garage with many vans all which have tinted windows. I'm brought around back to one van and am thrown in and locked, I quickly get up and look out the window and continue to see men with groups of people be put in vans all around me. I even see the girl that gave her bread to me. Which reminded my stomach just how empty it was. Within minutes men gradually get in the vans and begin to drive off. When I hear someone get in my van I thought it would be Rufus but it was the man that I fought when he was trying to move to the last cell.

"Alright, we got everybody out, lets blow this shit up." I hear his voice muffled. As he starts the car and jerks it forward and follows the rest out. I see that we exit a large cave and when we're a good mile away from the mountain I see a spark and then an enormous boom echo followed the mountain its self-collapsing with a mushroom cloud covering it. I look at it in complete awe.

Chapter 5

I sit in the corner of the van closest to the door. I stare at dirt clumps roll around the floor for hours. We've been driving for days, where are we going? Just then I hear a loud ear piercing screech which come to find out was us followed by an enormous jerk causing me to fly forward banging my head on the side of the van. Suddenly we flip over multiple times as I'm thrown all over the place. Hitting my already broken and battered body. Then the car crashes to a halt and I'm thrown out the window as shards of glass enter my skin and I skid several yards away from the crash site on the rough pavement. Literally shredding my body open. When I come to a stop I weakly look at what happened and see the man hanging out the wind-shield. Dead. I look around and see cars fly by and some stop, soon I hear sirens in the distance. But I lose consciousness and black out. When I think I'm awake, I go to open my eyes but they won't open. I go to speak but my mouth doesn't move. I go to move any part of my body, but I can't move. But I can hear. I hear sounds of heart monitors. Mine. I hear voices both near and far. Men and woman,

"Room 105 is ready for surgery. " Says a young woman who sounds like she was walking past me.

"I need an MRI for Miller." Says a man who sounds about mid-age. Suddenly it hit me. I'm in a hospital. I'm saved, no more Rufus, no more pain, no more Isolation. I want to shout for joy….but I can't move, why? I listen to doctors and nurses share information about other patients. Soon I hear someone walk over to me.

"Hey Doc! Come here quick!" says the person who sounds like a lady. I hear pounding feet.

"What?!" says a man's voice. The Doctor.

"Her vitals there going crazy," says the lady.

"She's conscious!" gasps the Doctor. I suddenly feel a hand touch mine. "Sarah? Sarah, can you hear me? This is Dr. Taylor, Sarah?" He says trying to remain calm but acting as if I were dead and came back to life. I try to respond, I do so with the smallest nod I've ever done. I hear sighs of relief,

"Yes, everybody! She's alive!" says the lady. I hear shouting and cheering. The doctor calms them down.

"Ok, ok, ok, Sarah can you hear me?" I nod slightly. "Ok can you open your eyes?" he asks. It takes a minute for my brain to find my eyes and struggle to open them. But little by little I gradually see light as darkness fades away. Soon I see a blurred figure staring at me. The doctor. I slowly move my head to my left and see a lady, the nurse. Then to my right and see more nurses and doctors. "Sarah?" the doctor says I move my head to him. He sits down. "You have been unconscious for over 3 months now. The day, or I should say night, we got you, the paramedics claimed you dead. When we were going over your injuries, I saw your chest slowly rise, and from that point I told myself I had to rebuild this girl's life. We found so many cuts and bruises we lost count around 450. You were stabbed, shot, cut, whipped, you name it. You were a living rag-doll. You had nothing to eat or drink in many weeks, from the looks of your chart you only had at least 4- 5 hours of sleep a week. The second the paramedics saw you the called the news crew, you were all over the news for weeks. People thought you were dead," he explains out of breath. "But it's truly a miracle." He finishes,

"…Where are my parents?" I say tiredly. The doctor's face softens.

"Sarah, you don't know yet do you?" he says I give him a questioned look.

"Over a year ago which is about how long you've been missing, the man that kidnapped you…he killed them." he says trailing off. I look at him, not wanting to believe him. I slowly feel my heart tare into pieces and tears form in my eyes. I slowly shake my head.

"No…no please god no." I burst out into tears. The nurse comes and sits next to me and gives me a hug, I don't hesitate at all and fall into her arms.

"We've been trying to find a place for you even if it is something like an orphanage." Continues the doctor. I cry even harder at the thought of moving to a new family. I grip the nurse's shirt.

"I have no one!" I cry out.

"I'm really sorry Sarah." Says the doctor and leaves. Soon the nurse leaves and I'm left alone.

Days past and I was watching TV when a nurse came in and looked happy.

"Good news Sarah, we found a place that will take you, now It's a boarding school but the headmaster was able to make arrangements for you to stay at one of the boarding houses. You'll be out of here and on your way to the house in about 15-20 minutes. Good luck." She says and leaves. Ok then, I said to myself. A few minutes past and a lady came in and walked me to a taxi cab. We didn't say a lot, I'm choosing not to talk a lot do to the fact I lost my family and am not willing to let anyone in. We drive for about 2 hours. Soon I'm surrounded by trees, as we come upon a large house. We stop and the driver helps me with my bags, I walk up to the door and ring the doorbell. A lady with short black hair answers it. She smiled and greeted me in.

"Hi sweetie I'm Trudy, you must be Sarah, welcome to Anubis house. Come in and meet the rest of the children." She says happily. She sets the bag the hospital gave me at the entry way and leads me to the common room where I see ten other kids my age, five girls and five boys, "Children I'd like you to gather around the couches please." She says, they stop what they're doing and come to the couches which I'm so tempted to collapse on for I haven't felt cushion in nearly a year. "Everybody I'd like you to meet Sarah Holden, she has just arrived from the hospital sh-"She pauses and turns to me, "Do you mind if I say what happened?" she whispers, I widen my eyes slightly.

"….Just say.. I – Was in a car wreck, I'll tell them eventually." I say quietly. She nods understandingly.

"She was in a car wreck. And her parents died so this is her foster home for now." She explains, "Now I'll let you introduce each other." She finishes and leaves.

"Hi I'm Amber," says a girl with long blonde hair, "This is Nina, Patricia, Mara, Joy, Eddie, Jerome, Alfie, Mick, and Fabian" She says pointing to each person. I nod and Amber shows me where I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping with her and Nina. As soon as I was done un packing I went to sleep.

Chapter 6

When I woke up it was 3:00 in the morning, what? I slept through dinner? I'm starving, I get out of bed and see that Amber and Nina are not in bed? Why? Ugh, whatever, I walk down stairs but the 5th step from the bottom creeks loudly, making me jump. I look up stairs and see no one, so continue into the kitchen. When I go to the fridge I see the left overs, chicken and pasta. I don't even bother in warming it up. I eat it all, not leaving one crumb. I have a lot of eating to catch up on. A lot. Suddenly I hear the front door open and see a figure walk in the house, I feel my heart drop to my stomach, is it him? Has he found me? I quickly go to the nearest corner which is next to the fridge. I curl up into my safety ball and watch as the figure comes in to the kitchen. I hold in a cry for help. Thinking maybe if I stayed quiet then he would leave. But I think he saw me cause he's headed straight towards me, I feel like I'm going to be sick. The figure stops at the counter in front of me.

"Who's there?" says the voice turning out to be a man. But it's not him thank god but it's still someone I don't trust and I don't trust anyone. The saddest part is… I don't think I ever will. "Show yourself," he says again breaking me from my thoughts. I dare not say a word. "I know you're here…" he trails off. He then walk to the wall and turns on the light. I shield my eyes. He walks back the counter and spots me. He has goatee and black hair matching it. He looks at me in disgust, "What are you doing out of bed, why didn't you answer me?" he says coldly, I say nothing but stare at him in similar fear from Rufus. "Well?" he says expecting me to say something. I curl up tighter, he sees this and softens his voice, "Are you ok?" he asks calmly, I look past him and see Nina, Amber, Fabian, Alfie, Patricia, and Jerome. Looking at us through the common room. I pay no attention to them at look back at the man. After a minute he takes a step forward and I flinch back. He backs up and slowly crouches down I tense up and whimper slightly, I didn't think he would hear this but he did. He looks hurt a little. But I don't let that bother me.

"What's wrong?" he says more calmly seeing the state I'm in. I shake my head slightly and try curling up more but can't go any farther. "Please, tell me, Trudy says that you were in a car wreck but I can tell it's something a lot worse. What is it?" I can feel a tear slide down, he sees this and reaches his hand out.

"P-Please.. d-don't hurt me." I quietly plead, he stops for a second but continues slowly to wipe my tear away. I shut my eyes tightly, and flatten myself against the wall. Slowly I feel his dry hand brush the tear away, I breathe deeply realizing I was holding my breath. I open my eyes and he stands up, I immediately throw my hands up, shielding my face. Waiting for a beating. Hopefully this one won't last long. I thought.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He says walking slowly to the other counter, seeing the empty plate of chicken all that was left were the bones. He picks it up and looks at me. I gulp, "There was literally a whole chicken barely touched," he pauses, "Did you eat the whole thing?" he says sounding shocked. I nod cowering. He looks at me for a second and chuckles, setting the plate back down, "I think you're the only person in this house that ate the whole thing of something." He says smiling, walking back to me and reaches his hand out. I look at it and then him, I hesitate greatly but slowly take it. He pulls me up gently, but he spots one of my stab wounds. And holds my arm looking at it. "What the bloody hell happened?!" he says, I pull my arm to my chest and look down ashamed. I feel another tear fall but instead on one there's many. He lifts my chin up and looks into my broken eyes, "Look I don't know what the hell happened, but I do know that you are badly hurt, and don't deny it, because just seeing you cower in the corner petrified, scared shitless, shows that there is more to that story Trudy said," he explains. I try to stop crying but the tears just kept coming. "Tell me what really happened…Sarah?" he says looking into my eyes, I shake my head.

"I-I-I can't…" I stutter,

"Why?" he says.

"H- he'll get me, h-he's looking for me. Yes I was in a car wreck, and yes I have no family. But that's what I told Trudy. You're right, there is more to the story, but if I told you…." I pause, scared to say too much,

"Go ahead, keep going its ok." He encourages,

"….Y- y-you wouldn't believe me." I say. "And how do you know my name when I don't even know you?"

"I'm Victor, you fell asleep before I could meet you, and what makes you think I wouldn't believe you?" he says

"Because….It's hard for me to believe," I sigh.

"Here, let's go to my office and you can tell me more." He says as we go upstairs. As we walk out of the common room I see in the corner of my eye the guys looking at me in complete shock. How much of that did they hear? I shake my head and follow Victor into his office. The first thing I see when we walk in is a stuffed black raven.

"I like your raven, she's pretty." I say, Victor and I sit

"Really? I mean thank you." He says. "Alright what happened?"

"Well. Over a year ago, my parents were shot, and now they're dead." I start feeling a tear slide but continued. "And the man who did it, kidnapped me and did the unspeakable to me and I wasn't the only one he does it to, there are hundreds more."

"Who are they and what does he do?" Victor clarifies.

"Kids. Kids my age and I'm 16. He, he tortures them in any way you can come up with, and he kills them -in any way you can think of, and I've had to live like this for over a year, beaten, whipped, kicked, punched, tazed, shot, starved, thirsty, left to die and bleed in unbearable, un ending pain, he doesn't care how much you scream and beg or plead for him to stop, he just laughs, Victor he gives no mercy, he says that the kids he has are there for many different reasons. Ransom, blackmail, held hostage, to sell etc." I say in tears. Victor takes time to take it all in. "And I've tried…" I pause.

"You tried what?" he says,

"I tried hundreds of times to escape, but I never got anywhere close to freedom, I haven't seen the outside world breathed fresh air, felt real sunlight. Not until 2 days ago, I've been in the hospital, unconscious for over three months, and I'm still healing." I finish.

"Sarah… I don't know what to say," is all Victor can say

"It's ok I knew you wouldn't believe me." I say getting up

"Sit." He spits. I sit, "As crazy as it may sound, I do believe you, because I know a man who can be capable of those things, may I guess who it is?" he says I nod. "Is it Rufus Zeno?" I gulp so hard it hurts,

"You know him?!" I gasp,

"Sadly yes, he was a good friend of mine, but then he changed, he went down a path I could not follow. He's become a very powerful man, so powerful it's almost imposable for the police to catch him. They've been after him for over 35 years, never got even close." He explains disappointed.

"I'm sorry." I say. I yawn, he sees this,

"Get to bed, you start school tomorrow." I get up and walk to my room where Amber and Nina are already asleep. What were they doing? I ignore it and go to sleep.

Chapter 7

In the morning, I wake up and go down stairs and to the kitchen but stop outside in the hall when I hear my name.

"Did you see the way Victor was talking to Sarah?" Says Alfie with a mouth full.

"I didn't even know he could talk like that. And what was up with Sarah?" Comments Fabian

"I don't know but she looked so scared, what were the talking about?" says Nina. I sigh in relief, good they didn't hear anything.

"Dude, did you see the way she tried to avoid him touching her?" I hear Jerome say.

"Something tells me she wasn't just in a wreck." Patricia adds. Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder, I flinch and cover my face,

"Hey, hey, hey it's just me." I look and see it's just Victor. I sigh, "Go eat." He says, I take a deep breath and walk in. They all stop whispering, I walk to the table and grab a plate, it's French toast. Then walk to the end of the table and sit down. We sit there not saying anything for about 2 minutes, when Nina speaks up.

"Hi Sarah, we heard you had a rough first night, are you ok?" she asks. I nod taking a bite,

"Can I ask you something?" Says Jerome, I pause, and nod slowly. "Why are you scared of being touched" he says. Everybody looks at him.

"Jerome!" they say in unison, he looks at them putting his hands up.

"What?!" he says in defense, they look back at me.

"Sorry about that, he's trying to learn when to keep his mouth shut at certain times." Says Patricia. "But I wonder the same thing." She says softer, I sigh putting my fork down, and pull up my shirt half way, reveling the largest stab wound Rufus gave me. They all gasp deeply,

"Oh my God! What happened?" Gasps Nina. I shake my head, I may have told Victor but I can't let anyone else know, I pushed it just telling him.

"Why don't you talk then?" Amber says.

"…..Cause there's nothing to talk about." I mumble getting up and walk out the kitchen, I walk out the house and walk to the school. As I was walking I think to myself, why did it have to be me? Why am I Rufus's favorite? When I'm out of the houses sight I suddenly hear a snap behind me, I whip around and see nothing. I glace around and pick up my pace, and then suddenly I feel a sharp pain at the base of my spine. I cry out in pain and collapse on the floor and grasp the inflicted area. I look back and see a rock hit the ground. I struggle to stand back up but when I do, I feel a strong cold hand cover my mouth. I muffle a scream and squirm, I don't even have to guess who it is. Rufus. This makes me fight even more,

"I've been looking for you everywhere, I was starting to think that you died in the wreck." He says, leaning closer to my ear, "Consider yourself lucky." He finishes and puts a cloth over my face, I start to feel light headed but I try to fight off the drug, and continue to fight. "Come on Sarah, time to go night, night." He says as I slowly start to collapse and Rufus follows. Then my vision goes black. When I wake up I have a massive head ach, I look and see that I'm in an old where house with my hands chained above my head and sitting on the ground. Shit! I said to myself. I breathe heavily and immediately feel sick to my stomach. I quickly to try to slip out of the cuffs but have no luck. But I don't give up I wince as the metal digs into my skin but yelp when the pain became too much. All I can do now is cry, not again, please god not again. What did I do to deserve more of this? Hours past and I've been twisting and turning my wrists in hopes I can slip them through. No luck. Suddenly I hear a car door shut outside, I jerk my head up and quicken my pace, so quick they start to bleed. When I hear the door unlock I freeze and feel the blood slide down my arm. Terrified. The door opens and see the man I fear most, Rufus. I gulp loudly.

"So, you've joined Anubis house." He says closing the door behind him. I say nothing but try to take steady breathes, "How was it?" he leans against the wall. I still say nothing, he huffs and walks to me, I push myself against the wall. "You know I'm getting pretty tired of the silent treatment." He spits and slams his foot in my face.

"AH!" I cry turning my head away, feeling warm blood run down my lip. I hold in a cry. "Wh- what do you want?" I whimper. He raises his eye brows, somewhat shocked.

"Well, I don't think I've heard your voice sense the explosion." He chuckles, and bends down un chaining me, I fall down and run to a corner. He allows this but follows me making sure I go nowhere else. He knows my past with him, all too well. "Which reminds me to tell you that I'm looking for a new place, but for now we have to stay here." He continues crossing his arms standing in front of me. All of the sudden we hear a loud crash outside. We both look to the door. He quickly grabs my wrists and drags me back to the chains and pulls out a role of duct tape and puts it over my mouth. All this within a matter of seconds. He leaves closing and locking the door, as I sit hear listening and hoping someone has come to help. I can faintly hear him walk around the building, and then I hear another voice who I recognize as Victor! I quickly try to reach my mouth pulling off the tape and yell on the top of my lungs.

"VICTOR! HELP I'M IN HERE!" I scream, I can't hear exactly what they're saying but I can hear yelling. After 15-20 minutes I see Victor come in followed by Rufus. I go to hug Victor but the chains hold me back. "Victor! Please get me out of here!" I beg franticly pulling,

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down Sarah, I need you to listen carefully, ok?" Victor says calmly but looks like he's about to cry, he crouches down looking behind him at Rufus who stands at the closed door, Victor turns back at me.

"What's going on?" I say worriedly.

"I can't take you back Sarah…" he starts, I immediately feel tears fill my eyes, and shake my head,

"What are you talking about?" I whimper

"Sarah while you were in the hospital… Rufus took custody of you, you belong to him." Victor tries to say this without shedding a tear but many shed. I shake my head and look over his shoulder at Rufus who's smiling widely.

"No, Please god no." I plead,

"I'm sorry Sarah, I told you he was a powerful man." He says and stands back up.

"Victor no please no don't go please," I beg for him to take me with him, but before he leaves he glares at Rufus.

"You're a sick man Zeno." He hisses and leaves. Rufus shuts the door behind Victor. Rufus laughs, walking back to me.

"Powerful? Yes. Sick? Can be. But do I care? No." he states as he looks at me. I turn my head away and let the tears fall. There goes my last hope. Now I'm truly a prisoner.

Chapter 8

For weeks I say nothing. Not one peep, I've almost forgotten what my own voice sounds like. Rufus comes in twice a week to give me a role of stale bread and a water bottle. The bread doesn't last a second and the water last only a few minutes. I try to keep myself form believing that I'm his, that I belong to him, legally. I spend a good portion of the day asleep and when I'm awake I'm working on slipping out of the cuffs. Leaving me with bloody wrists, inflamed and infected. But one day, Rufus comes in waking me up a little for I was trying to go to sleep.

"Good news, we found a place." He says walking to me. "It's an old abandon prison, perfect place to keep you brats." He snickers unlocking me but pauses when he sees my wrists, he smiles looking at me. "You never stop do you?" he laughs. I don't know why I did this but I spit in his face. His face drops and he yanks me up and throws me out the door, I land hard on the gravel as tiny rocks penetrate my hands. I wince and take my chance and run, but Rufus snatched my ankle and I fall forward, I yelp and turn on to my back and start kicking. He blocks my feet with his hands and manages to grab hold of one of my feet and twist it in ward causing me to flip back on my stomach, he then quickly puts his knee in between my shoulder blades, as I cry in pain he grabs my hands and handcuffs them tightly behind my back, I wince as he yanks me up but I still fight. I pull out of his grasp but lose my balance and fall forward once more. I franticly scoot away as I see him become madder. When I turn around my head jerks forward and I black out.

When I wake up I feel a warm liquid run down my neck through my hair, blood. I open my eyes and see that I'm in the back of Rufus's van, there is a blockade separating us. The back windows are tinted. And there is nothing in the back but me not even a seat belt. I scoot to the nearest corner and sit up, trying to see out the window all I see are flat planes and a strait road, where the hell are we? I then try to bring my hands under my legs and in front of me. This done I scoot to the back door and push the handle but it's locked, I throw my body against the door seeing if I can break the window. I do this multiple times when suddenly the car screeches to a halt and I'm thrown forward I help break my fall by putting my hands in front of me. I look out the window and see nothing. Why did we stop? Then the car honks making me jump. I go to the window and see a large herd of cattle. The car jerks forward and stops and forward again, this happens many times until we pass the herd I look back and see them looking at us. I smile, that was kind of funny. But my smile goes away the second I relies there is nothing to smile at. I sigh and sit against the door for hours, soon day became night. The car was pitch black, I can't even see out the window. Soon the car takes a turn for the first time in who knows how long. I lift my head off the floor, when I hear the front door shut. I gulp as the back door opens and Rufus yanks me out, this time I don't fight. Not yet anyways. We walk up to a large broken down building that is surrounded but an electric fence. When we walk in I see many of Rufus's men walk in every direction, most of them are holding a kid and one kid I recognize as the girl who gave me her bread. Apparently she recognized me to. As we make eye contact. A man then calls over Rufus and he pushes he forward to walk. When we stop, he pushes me down onto my knees and switches the handcuffs back behind my back. As the men are talking I look around for the girl. I spot her behind me lying on the ground as two men shout above her. One suddenly kicks her in the gut, I snap.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" I shout going to get up but wind up on the floor myself.

"Shut the fuck up!" roars Rufus kicking me in the rib cage. I wince but continue to help my friend.

"Hey you Ass whole, leave her alone!" I yell, as they look at me. Rufus grabs my upper arm and twists my arm up wards. "AAH!" I cringe going to collapse but he doesn't allow this and twists it more.

"I said shut it!" he hisses throwing me on the ground, I yelp and look up and see many kids look at me. "Move one muscle and see what happens." He growls, I stay put. Wincing at my throbbing arm, I see one kid try to run. Rufus sees this, "Get him!" he shouts at the men with no kids go after him. The boy didn't get far, and the men caught him. "Bring him to me." The men bring the young boy to Rufus. I sit up on to my knees. The men push the boy on the floor landing at Rufus's feet. With one swift move he kicks the boy in the jaw, he cries out in pain, spitting out blood.

"Look at me." spits Rufus, the boy stares at his blood too scared to look at him. "Look at me!" he says again the man standing behind the boy pulls his hair back, forcing him to look at Rufus. The boy whimpers, as Rufus bends down. "What made you think you could run?" he growls looking into the boy's eyes. The boy stares at him. "Answer me boy!" he shouts. We both flinch at his monstrous voice.

"I-I.. I saw that she escaped so I tried." He says, I widen my eyes as they both look at me.

"And look where that got you." Rufus says, "Take him away I'll deal with him later." The men take him away as Rufus comes back over to me and yanks me up by my bad arm. He walks me through the crowd and up metal stairs to a row of cells. He throws me in after un cuffing me, I fall on to the ground and turn around but he's gone and the cell is locked. I get up and walk to the front and watch every one forcefully get escorted to cells. Kicked, punched, thrown, I can hear them cry out for mercy. I see Rufus walk up to the boy and grab his neck, the boy sinks down onto his knees. I don't know what he's saying but I can hear him shouting. Then Rufus kicks him in the chest and lets the boy collapse, he starts to kick the boy repetitively.

"Rufus! Stop it!" I shout. He stops and looks around to see where the voice came from. When he spots me he narrows his eyes. He delivers one final kick before heading back up, oops I told myself. I try to act brave and refuse to go to the corner. But flinch when he reaches the top of the steps.

"You just don't know when to stop do you?" he spits sliding the cell open. Now I cower into the corner but he snatches my arm before I could move. I panic and swing my hand back hitting his jaw, he gets pissed off and pulls me out of the cell and leans me over the rail holding my neck. I look in the corner of my eye and see it's at least a 25 foot drop. I look back at Rufus and grab his hand and rake my nails in to his skin. "AAH!" he roars throwing me aside. I hit my head on the rail and cry out. He beats me repetitively and then throws me back in. I scoot in the corner and cry as I listen to cries of pain and fear. Welcome back home.

Chapter 9

After everyone was put in cells the lights were turned off except the emergency light, three men guard the door down stairs. Their voices are all we hear for hours. I lay at the front of the cell my eyes closed but very much awake. But when I hear a door close that echo's the room. I look and see that almost everyone was at the front of their cells. Even the boy. But half of them retreat back when they see it was Rufus. I don't. I have to face my fear if I want to escape but it might be imposable. So this wasn't going to be easy, then again when you're dealing with Rufus, nothing is easy. He walks through double doors downstairs and to the men, I can't hear what they're saying but see the boy on the first floor in front of me waving his hands lowly trying to get my attention. I nod my head letting him know I see him. He points to Rufus's back. I follow his hand and see what he was pointing to. In Rufus's back pocket was a gun. I gasp. Now normally Rufus doesn't carry a gun, but when he does it generally means someone is going to die. The men separate, the guards go through the double doors and Rufus walks up the stairs on the other side of the room, he walks past each cell looking for someone. I feel sick to my stomach. He stops at the second to last cell. And slides it open, and walks in. I hear a cry of fear as he walks out with the girl who I tried to help earlier. Oh no, she's been chosen!

"No! Rufus! Please not her!" I plead shaking the bars. He looks my way, but pays me no attention. But the girl does, the second she sees me she yells,

"My name is Page! My mom is Tina Baxter! My Dad is Ryan Baxter! Tell them I love them and that I'm sorry for saying what I said!" she shouts as Rufus pushes her down the steps.

"No don't say that! You're going to say that yourself to them. I promise! Page!" I cry as Rufus takes her through the doors. I waited a few seconds before I hear a loud shriek followed by a gun shot. That's it I thought. She's dead. After what she did for me I couldn't repay her. I look at the boy who's in the corner of his cell. I slide down and sit against the wall and stare at the doors. Why did she get chosen? What did she do to lose her life? Who's next? I repeat these questions over and over in my head. Until someone lets out a loud clear burp. Which many burst out in a quiet laughter. This actually makes me smile, not only because of the burp but the sight of laughter. Especially in a place of torture and fear and pain. One kid even says he can do better and burps as well. This one was louder as well as the laughter. But all the laughter comes to an abrupt halt when the doors open and Rufus comes in. He takes in the strange silence. He walks in slowly looking at everyone.

"Why so quiet all of the sudden?" he says walking along the bottom cells. No one answers, "I expect an answer, and don't say you didn't do anything, I heard you brats." He adds.

"I'll tell you what we did if you tell me why you shot Page?" I say standing up. Rufus walks bellow my cell and stops looking up.

"What did you just say?" he hisses, I gulp before continuing, why am I doing this I tell myself.

"You heard what I said you ass hole." I spit as kids gasp. He snickers and walks to the steps. This time I'm not moving. Once he reaches the top he walks to my cell. I don't move and yes I'm terrified but I'm also determined to find out what he's up to. "Why did you shoot Page?" I say again lowly. He smiles leaning in, grasping the bars.

"Her time was up, she was no longer useful to me. Now answer mine. Why were you brats laughing?" he growls.

"We were burping." I say leaving it plain and simple. I hear someone giggle quietly. I couldn't help but smile. Rufus narrows his eyes at me,

"Hmm, I see that your fearful side has runaway and your smart mouth is taking over." He pauses, sliding the cell open, I keep myself from retreating. He walks in, "But that fear will come back," he backs me up against the wall, "Very quickly." He adds and smashes my head against the wall and I fall limp.

I slowly wake up to the searing pain in my head, I open my eyes and see that my hands were chained above my head and I was standing in the middle of a white room. I look and see Rufus was standing against the wall holding a bull whip. I gulp unnoticed as he walks behind me, my eyes follow him as far as they could go. But when he's out of sight I start to get scared but don't let it show. He suddenly yanks my head back and moves close to my ear.

"Where's that smart mouth now?" he whispers,

"Still here." I smirk, Rufus growls and let's go of my hair and in a split second all I hear is a loud CRACK! Followed my cries of pain, CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The whip slashes my back into shreds, one slices my cheek. He repeats this over and over. I lost count at 25, soon he finally stops and walks to my front. I look at him with hatred. Holding back the fear that begs to be released, he wrings out the whip like a wet rag and blood drips onto the floor like water. "How's that fear coming along?" he hisses

"I'm sorry, fear isn't available right now please leave a message after the beep." I snicker. Rufus's face drops, and starts to whip the front of me, slicing me in the chest, gut, arms, legs, and face. And I'm pretty sure it was more than 25 slashes. When he's done the fear was about ready to explode, but I inhaled deeply to sustain it, but I can't hold it in too much longer. He knows how to break you.

"Now surely your fear is about ready to crack." He says hanging the whip up on the wall, I watch as my blood drips off the tip and slowly forms a small puddle. He walks back to me, I look at him as I feel warm blood run down my eye brow, and lip. He stops just a couple feet in front of me crossing his arms. I do my best to ignore the agonizing pain. "How much more of this can you take Sarah?" he says lowly.

"What are you out of torture methods or something? What happened? Huh? Do you not have it in you anymore?" I sass. God I have to shut up. He just smirks.

"Oh no my dear, I have plenty of methods, some I never tried on a human being before, but lucky you, you might be the first." He says bopping me on the nose before he unchains my hands. Letting me fall to the ground that's coated in my blood. He pulls me up onto my feet and whispers in my ear, "Oh and by the way you might have a friend or two coming over later." He sneers and everything goes black once again.

Chapter 10

As the pain grew stronger the more I woke up. Seeing that I was back in my cell, I look around and see that blood covered the floor, I weakly get up and crawl to the front. There the boy smiles pointing to me.

"Hey! Sarah's awake!" he says, the kids across from me both on top and bottom cheer as the kids on my side do the same. I look at them clueless,

"SHHHH! What the fuck guys!?" I quiet them down,

"We saw Rufus take you out and you come back looking all bloody, we thought you were dead! "Says the boy. I smile

"Hey I never got your name." I say scooting against the wall that held the cell up.

"My name is Carter, I'm 16" he greets.

"I'm 16." I nod,

"How long have you been with Rufus?" asks a boy next to Carter.

"About two years. "I state sadly.

"So that's why Rufus treats you worse than us." Comments Carter. I nod, I'm about to say something else when the main doors open and I see a 2 boys and 2 girl are shoved on the floor. I gasp as I recognize them. The 2 boys are Jerome and Alfie, and the 2 girls are Nina and Amber.

"Nina!" I shout grabbing the bars. They look up at me and go nuts,

"SARAH!" they say in unison.

"Shut up!" yell the men who brought them in. Suddenly Rufus barges through the double doors and sees me up. He smiles continuing to walk to my friends.

"You recognize them Sarah?" taunts Rufus. The men push them on to their knees,

"What are you doing here Zeno?" spits Jerome. Rufus stops in front of them.

"Oh I run this place Clark, Welcome." He laughs

"Who are these guys why did they bring us here?" Cries Amber, Rufus rolls his eyes

"These are my men they work for me, they brought you here because they saw you follow me here from Anubis a few hours ago." He dumbs it down. Anubis!? I widen my eyes.

"What are you going to do with us?" Alfie says worriedly.

"What I do to all you brats. And I'm sure Victor would love to hear that half his house is missing." He finishes stepping aside allowing the men to pass putting them in any open cell. Unfortunately they were all put down stairs. Once the men left, Rufus walks past them and out the doors. Without us thinking we all burst out into questions at the same time. I stop them and start with mine.

"Why did you guys follow him!?" I hiss.

"When you disappeared we went looking for you, and we saw Rufus and thought he might lead us to you. And he did!" Amber says cheerfully. I face palm my head,

"Yeah but you also walked straight into a death trap." I spat.

"Why are you all bloody Sarah?" asks Jerome

"Oh no reason Rufus just loves to torture the hell out of me is all." I say as Rufus walks in and come up the steps. Show no fear I thought, don't give him what he wants. He comes straight to my cell and slides it open. He grabs my arm and takes me down stairs, and through the double doors. We walk down a long hall and in to the same room I was whipped. Which sill is coated with my blood. He walks me over to the chains and hangs my arms above me. He walks behind me, I hear him pick something up. And stop a few feet behind me.

"Is your fear back yet?" he says turning something on sounding like pressurized air was being released.

"Why are my friends here?" I try to change the subject.

"That wasn't the question." He says as I feel the air on my back its cold, but I have a feeling this wasn't the feeling I was supposed to feel. I say nothing. I hear a click and the cold air becomes scorching hot. It's a blow torch

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!AAAAAAAHHH!" I screech as I pull on the chains. He moves it around my back. "AAAHHHH!AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I scream as I feel my skin singe. He walks it to my front and continues to burn me alive. When he thinks I had a good tan, he stops. But I continue to scream as my body burns. He waits to speak when my screaming dies down. He lowers his head to match my eye level

"Anything?" he says I shake my head, he pulls something out of his pocket, I look and see it was a syringe, "Very well, this is to make sure you don't black out on me." he says stabbing it in my neck. I cry as he injects adrenaline in my body. I shake rapidly as it rushes all throughout my body. He then brings out a newly sharpened knife. I widen my eyes as he sets it at the top of my wrist and slowly pushes and drags it down my arm.

"AAAAHHHH!" I cry as he digs deeper the further down he gets. When he reaches my shoulder he moves to the next arm and enters the knife when he reaches that shoulder I cry as my arms pour out fresh warm blood. When he sets the bloody knife above my right eye, I break. "OK! Ok! Ok! I'm scared ok?" I plead as he pulls the knife back, and unchains my arms as I fall to the ground and with one swift move of his foot I black out.

Chapter 11

I wake up to my back burning, I hold in a cry, and see I'm laying on my stomach surrounded my both dry and fresh blood back in my cell. I lift my head up and see the lights were off except for one. How long was I out? I sit up weakly and walk to the front. Everyone was asleep. I look around for the gang and when I spot them I see that they too were asleep. I look to the double doors and see the light was on through the windows. I sigh and slide down against the wall, I decide to wait for them to wake up. Meanwhile I look over where I was laying and see blood coated the floor. How am I still alive? I think. I sit there for hours in dead silence. Soon I myself start to drift off to sleep. But jump up when someone shouts.

"Holy shit, Sarah!" I jump up wincing at the sudden movement. I look at where the voice came from, Carter. "You haven't died yet?!" he gasps as he sees my condition. I shake my head. His yelling wakes up Alfie and Jerome. They too look terrified at my condition.

"Sarah! What did he do to you!?" says Alfie

"He sort of tried to cook me alive." I say trying to make a joke out of it. Why are they worried about me?

"Sarah, your body can't take much more of this," starts Jerome. "You have to do something." My face drops.

"I can't Jerome! Don't you get it!" I yell, little did I know Rufus was standing at the doors. Listening to every word I was saying. "I've been living like this for almost two years, I've tried everything! Nothing worked, all I can do is lie to him to protect myself!" I shout.

"What have you lied about?" Jerome also doesn't see Rufus.

"Why would I say that?!" I yell standing up but wince at the pain

"Sarah please sit down." Jerome begs,

"Why!?" I spit supporting by body on the bars.

"I hate seeing you suffer Sarah! I-…I love you!" he trails off. My face drops.

"Ok let's stop there." Rufus walks all the way in, I sit down slightly cowering, "What the hell did I walk into?" he laughs, I look at Jerome. Rufus walks to the center of the room and sits at one of the metal tables. He looks at Jerome. "Jerome a little advice about girls, don't tell them that you love them too early." Rufus then looks at me, I gulp. "And Sarah, what were you saying about lying to me?" His voice cold.

"I didn't say shit." I say hiding the fear. Rufus nods standing up and walks up the steps. I quickly scoot into the corner, when he comes into view, I start to shake and he slides open the cell. He leans against the cell's door frame crossing his arms.

"Would you like to rephrase that?" he says. I gulp slightly.

"Nope, you should've been listening." I sass why does my mouth get the better of me at times like this. His face drops, and he pulls out the same knife from earlier. I stiffen, as he walks to me.

"I'm going to ask again or I'll take pleasure in skinning you right now in front of everybody. What lies have told me?" he growls, what do I say, if I tell him the lies I get beaten, if I don't I'll still get beaten. I hold in cries for help, and push my knees against my chest. He then snaps and pins me on the ground and sits on top of me dog style pinning me on my back, I whimper as dirt enters my burns and cuts. He holds both my hands above my head with one hand and the knife in the other. I struggle to pull my arms in, but he uses his body weight to hold me down as well as crushing my chest. I try to take short breaths. He sets the bloody knife on the side of my face. "Tell me!" he roars I flinch at the tone of his voice too scared to speak. He slowly pierces my skin as I feel blood run down. I hold in my cries of pain. He turns the knife on its side and puts more pressure on my face and slides the knife up toward him. Peeling my skin off. Now I cry in pain as tears stream down my face, I feel my skin peel off my face. He peels it off to my chin and moves to my arms, then shoulders. When he's done, his hand is covered in my blood. He stands up as he wipes the blood on my shirt. "I will leave you to bleed for a while and then maybe I'll get some answers out of you." He says leaving and closing the cell. I cover my face and arms, trying to stop the bleeding. I cry as the tears enter the open wounds. But no matter how long I hold my cuts they won't stop bleeding. Eventually I lose so much blood I fall unconscious. I see myself walking in the mountains, as birds fly every which way, and flower peddles float across the sky. Where am I? Am I dead? I wouldn't mind if I was, I come across a small creek, I bend down and see my face. I'm covered in scars and layers of skin torn off, I look closer as I start to see another figure come up to me from behind. But I gasp when I see the figure is Rufus, I spin around as he raises his fist I dodge it and run up the path on the mountain, I look back and see he's chasing me. I run even faster, but when I come to the end of a cliff I look down below. I see hundreds of feet below me are many sharp edged rocks and pounding waves crashing into them. The breeze of the ocean blows my hair back. I quickly look back and see he's standing right in front of me. Suddenly the sky becomes dark and lightning roars above me, and rain begins to fall. He walks closer to me as I see his mouth move but no words come out. The closer he got the more I backed up until I stepped on a weak part of the cliff and fall but luckily I catch myself from falling and grab the edge, now I was hanging off the cliff. I struggle greatly to pull myself up but Rufus steps on my fingers. I cry out in pain. He crushes my hand causing me to let go and he lets me fall. I scream as he laughs watching me fall. Before I landed on the pointed rocks I shoot up, awake, screaming just as loud as I was in my dream. I breathe rapidly and feel myself down. I'm still alive it was just a dream I tell myself. I lay back down and feel pools of blood under me. God, how much blood do I have left? I roll onto my stomach cringing at my burns, I look at my skinned arm, the bleeding has settled down a lot, letting me see what is under the first layer of skin. From what I see it looks like a lighter color of the top layer. But it stings tremendously for it is clearly exposed to the infected air. I cover it with my shirt which helps a little but lose cotton gets stuck to the peeled skin. I look around and see the peelings of the skin stuck to the floor. This almost makes me gag but there is nothing to come up. Looking out the front I see the lights are on I stand up shaking. I have to support myself on the wall, I sit down at the front and see that the guards are back. Where were they in the first place? I see that the gang is gone. I look around in the other cells but don't see them. I look into Carter's cell, thankfully he was still here,

"Psst… Carter" I whisper, Carter hears me and is about to respond when one of the men look my way and smile. He tells the other man something and walks out the doors. The man who stayed back looks at me, I give him a questioned look.

"You should've stayed asleep." He cackles. Just then the doors open and both the man and Rufus come in. I immediately shoot back against the wall.

"Did you see her?" says one of the men.

"Yes, how long was she out?" says Rufus.

"Well I came back a few minutes after you were through with her, so about 7 hours or so." explains the first man.

"Fair enough." Says Rufus walking up the steps. I hold my breath. He and the man that got him slide open the cell. "Well good morning sleeping beauty." He says smiling. I shake my head as he walks in,

"Please Rufus no more." I plead quietly, he heard this and crouches down in front of me, and I press myself against the wall.

"I won't have to continue if you just tell the lies." He states.

"But I can't.." I cry softly

"And why's that?" he hisses

"Because if I told you then you'd get mad and if I didn't you'd still get mad." I say in between tears. He looks at me a second, and smiles

"Well I guess I never thought of that did I?" he chuckles, he shifts positions kneeling, "But… you don't know that for sure, if you told me then I might go easy on you or we could keep doing this if you'd like, I kind of find it fun." He says pulling the knife back out. I gulp loudly not meaning to. I open my mouth bringing the guts to say them.

"I…when you…"I try so hard to say it,

"Go on you can do it." Rufus nods for me to continue.

"I- y….You want to know how I've been surviving your torture?" I stutter keeping my eyes on the knife.

"You know now that you mention it yes, most people don't last this long," he leans in. "What makes you so different my dear?" he says lowly.

"Because I'm determined not to die like this." I say slightly confident until he smiles.

"Well I am." He smirks snapping his fingers, the men behind him come in and walk to me but I suddenly get a rush of energy and run past them and out the cell, locking them in. "You little bitch!" shouts Rufus. I smile and run down the steps and slide all the cells open letting out the kids, as they cheer running to the entrance. I look at Rufus one last time and run with the crowd. I know I haven't lost him for good but at least this gives me some time to escape. We run out and see that we're in the mountains. I stop and so do the others. Where are we?

Chapter 12

I look around to see if there is any sight of civilization. Nothing, Carter pulls me over and looks worried.

"Um… where do we go now?" he whispers,

"Um…" I look around and eventually see smoke at the top of the mountains, "Up there." I point. The kids start walking as do I but Carter pulls me aside.

"Sarah, look at your condition, are you sure you can do this?" he whispers,

"I can do it. Trust me." I smile. He nods not satisfied but starts walking. Once he's a head of me I stop smiling. What am I saying look at me I'm dying more and more by the hour. I'll never make it. I sigh and start walking. We walk for days, I try my best to keep up with everybody. But always find myself being the last one. Finally I collapse on all fours and grasp my chest, I feel a warm liquid drip down. I pull my hand back and see that I'm bleeding from one of my cuts. Carter sees this and tells everybody to hold up. "Sarah are you sure you can do this?" he asks again but with more concern. I nod trying to hide the blood but Carter sees this. "Dude, you're bleeding!" he says grabbing my bloody hand, he's about to say something when a kid shouts.

"He's coming!"

"Everybody hide!" I say quickly, everyone scatters like mice. Carter helps me up and helps me hide behind two large boulders, he quickly tares a piece of his shirt off and gives it to me to help stop the bleeding. We all freeze when Rufus and a hand full of his men come in to view.

"Spread out." Demands Rufus as he and a few men stay in our area. I see Rufus stop in front of us and looks down. "Well will you look it here." He smiles widely as the men he's with look over his shoulder.

"I wonder who's blood this is." He snickers knowing it's mine. He looks up. "Sarah. Come out come out where ever you are." He says in a sickening voice, I cower back. Carter sees this and out of nowhere he wraps me in a tight hug. I sit there shocked for a few seconds but give in and burry my face in his arms. "Keep looking. There're close." He bellows looking around. Rufus walks around for several minutes and finally moves on. We wait for several more minutes until we feel the coast is clear. I peek my head out from behind the large rock and walk out with Carter behind me and we set off to find the others. Once we find everyone we continue up the mountain. But we keep an extra eye out for Rufus and his men.

Soon day becomes night and the air becomes cool, finally we decide to stop for the night at an old semi large cave, we all pack in and go to sleep. In the morning we do a head count to make sure everyone was here, this confirmed we continue up the mountain. By mid-day we reach the top, I look down and try to find the smoke, we see it but a lot of it has faded. It was only a matter of time before it was fully gone. So we had to move quickly. This wasn't a problem for the others but as for me, I started to think I would never make it. As the others started down the mountain. I sat down to catch my breath. Carter comes and sits next to me.

"Hey Sarah what your doing is unbelievable and we are grateful for that but we also mourn for you. A good portion of us are scared from what we saw Rufus do to you. And we can't bear to see that again. But my question is…why are you doing this for us?" he says.

"Because you guys are too young to experience the pain and torture I go through every day. And I don't want you guys to be so scared to the point where you'll do anything and I mean anything to keep yourself from going to sleep." I explain

"Why are you his favorite?" Carter says as he watches the others slowly make their way down.

"I don't know, I guess it's because he knew my mom and… and the… well I wouldn't say power but the ability she had and sort of passed on to me." I say.

"What was that?" he says

"I don't know yet he killed her before she could say anything." I sigh

"Oh I'm sorry, what was it that he wanted to do with her?" he clarifies

"I don't know but whatever it is, he obviously wants it so bad he's trying to kill me to tell him when I don't even know what he's after." I say standing up and start heading down

"Have you ever told him?" Carter follows,

"I try and try but he won't listen, it's gotten to the point where I have to make something up every time he asks me something and if he doesn't like it he beats the shit out of me. And it just repeats." I say as he gives me a hug. I hug him back.

"Hey! Love birds! Get your asses down here!" shouts one of the kids. We start walking.

"HURRY RUN!" shouts a girl, her voice sounded scared, then all of them start pointing behind us, we turn around and see Rufus has spotted us at the very top.

"Come on!" yells Carter grabbing my hand. We run as fast as we can over rocks and holes, when we catch up with the others we all begin to run. Once we reach the bottom we run into the trees, looking for the camp site. But as we're running my ankle gets caught in between a tree root and a large rock. I fall to the ground as I feel it pop.

"AAAAH! Carter!" I shriek. He stops and runs back to me trying to get it un stuck.

"It won't move!" he hisses trying to move the rock I yelp as my ankle is crushed.

"There they are!" I hear Rufus shout from behind us. I look back and see him reach the bottom of the mountain.

"CARTER!" I plead, he quickens his pace until finally he's able to slide the rock away enough for me to remove my foot revealing blood, and he helps me up and puts my arm around his neck. But we're too slow and Rufus's men tackle us. One man body slams Carter, I lose balance and fall forward.

"Go! Sarah Go!" he shouts fighting the men. I shout getting up and jump on the man's back choking him. He grabs my arms trying to pry them open. He backs up into a tree, but I kick myself off it using my good foot. Causing the man to fall forward, hitting his head on a rock killing him instantly. I let go of him and grasp my ankle. I look around for Carter and see him unconscious. I go to get up but am shoved to the ground face first. I struggle to push myself up. But the person on me is using his body weight. I grunt and push even harder. But my arms give out. I pant, as my face is wet with tears and covered in dirt. I look ahead, one man goes to pick up Carter.

"Leave him!" I shout a burst of energy shoots throughout body. I push up again and the man loses his grip and I go to run at the man who was at Carter. I tackle the man and choke him but I feel someone pull me off and slam me on my side. I go to get up but I'm kicked in the chest. I ignore this warning to say down but am then kicked on to my back and the person's foot slams down on my neck, chocking me. I kick my feet in attempt to receive air.

"Hold her legs!" says the man choking me I feel some one pin my legs down. I look over at Carter who is now tied up and still out cold. I take a deep breath and shout,

"CARTER!" but this deserves more pressure on my neck. I gasp deeply and grab his foot. "CARTER WAKE UP!" I wheeze.

"ENOUGH!" shouts a voice echoing the mountains, we all look over and see Rufus. He walks up to Carter. I flinch but the man puts more pressure on my neck. Rufus bends down above Carter and feels his pulse. My heart drops. Is he…? "Take him to the van lock him up." Demands Rufus standing back up. He then walks over to the man I killed,

"He's dead." Says the man at my feet. Rufus looks at him

"What?" he spits

"She killed him. Choked him to death. He tried backing her up into a tree but she kicked herself off and he smashed his head on the rock." Explains the man choking me. I look at Rufus scared as he walks to me pissed.

"Get off her." He hisses.

"But sh-"Rufus cut him off harshly.

"Off!" he barks. They get off. I inhale deeply and roll onto my side. Only to be kicked in the face.

"AAH!" I yelp getting up but am pushed back down and I start to crawl away. But Rufus follows.

"You KILLED one of my men!?" He shouts like I never heard him shout before. I try to stand up but Rufus slams his heel in my face. "STAY DOWN!" I flinch at his voice, it's so strong even the men take a step back. I look at them but he wanted me to look at him and only him. He stomps on my broken ankle.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" I screech grabbing his foot trying to push it off. This just deserves a punch in the chest. I groan retreating back. Soon my back is against a tree. "Is Carter dead?" I stutter.

"No but you'll be." Rufus spits and kicks my head against the tree knocking me out. Boy am I in trouble.

Chapter 13

As I slowly wake up I start to see where I am, in my old bloody cell. I go to run to the front my by good foot is yanked back, I look and see I'm chained to the wall. I panic,

"CARTER!" I cry out. "CARTER WHERE ARE YOU?!" I shout. No answer, I cry, this really is how I'm going to die isn't it?

"Well look who's finally awake." I hear Rufus say down stairs. I shut my mouth and back up. I hear his heavy feet come up the steps. I gulp. As he comes into the cell this time not bothering to close it behind him. I see he lock has been shot so it no longer can lock. "Boy, the mess you've gotten yourself into…" He trails off shaking his head,

"I- I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill him I-I-"I start to plead but Rufus kicks me in the jaw.

"SHUT UP! First of all what the fuck were you thinking that you could escape like that?!" he roars. I cower back.

"I'm sorry! I-"

"I said shut up! Thanks to you, I have to find a man to replace him! Do you know how hard that is?!" I've never seen him this mad. I shake my head, his face turns even more angry. He quickly wraps his hand around my throat and starts to slowly squeeze. I grab his massive hand and try to pry it off. "Let me tell you something and you listen closely, I have an extremely short temper, and you will not like me when my patience runs out. All my employees are scared shitless of me. Ask any of them, I have to find one that can at least obey a command and not shit their pants." He shouts, his face turning red. I gasp, I'm running out of air. I struggle even more. I try to break his death grip but don't relies I kick him hard in the shin. He lets go dropping me on the floor, I inhale deeply clutching my neck.

"AAHH!" he yells, I'm too focused on refilling my lungs with air that I don't see his foot colliding in to my face, I feel my nose crack and immediately starts to bleed badly.

"AAAHH!" I cry as worm thick blood quickly forms a puddle, I'm then kicked in the shin but much harder than I did to Rufus, "AAAAHH!" I clutch it and look up at him. He does not look happy,

"You little brat!" he shouts kicking me in the jaw, I yelp shielding my face. "You are very foolish to do something like that to me, especially when my gun is with me!" he roars pulling it out and shoots my shoulder,

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" I scream falling forward at his feet. He bends down and lifts my chin up. I franticly try to stand up but am too slow and I'm pinned on the ground and flipped on to my back. Even though I'm probably a goner, I continue to fight like my life depends on it. Which it does, I start to hit and scratch Rufus. Raking my finger nails in his cheek drawing blood.

"AAH! YOU LITTLE…" he shouts grabbing my left wrist and twists it sideways I feel it crack a few times.

"AAAHH! " I screech. He then starts to beat me senselessly, he kicks me four times in the gut, three times on the shot leg, and gives one big blow in the ribs. The air was knocked out of me and struggled greatly to refill my lungs, I role in to my side clutching my gut, I wheeze deeply. But Rufus wasn't quite done with me yet he flips me onto my back again and presses his foot on my neck, choking me. I gasp grabbing his foot and tried to remove it, but the more I tried the harder he pressed,

"That was a very bad mistake." He hisses kicking my rib cage, and walks out. But before he leaves he turns around. "I'm not done with you yet, and your in luck my men haven't caught anyone yet, just imagine the hatred your about to receive after you thought you saved the brats," he growls and leaves. I sigh but jump when he speaks again from down stairs. "You were easy to catch. You left a trail of your blood." I hear him snicker,

"What about Carter!?" I cry.

"Oh he's here, just not in here." And with that I hear the doors close. I sit in the corner and cry myself to sleep and have another nightmare.

I turn in to another hall, instead of smelling like blood this one smells like death. Rufus shoves me into a room with chains hanging from the ceiling. He forces my wrist in to the cuffs, I wince as he tightens them, and he walks behind me. And yanks my hair back I yelp. He comes right to my ear,

"Don't test me, you do as I say you'll be out of here in a flash, but you do what you're doing right now it's going to be a long time before you see the sun light." He huffs, I shudder. He goes over to a closet in the corner of the room and opens it, I turn my head around and see a row of whips and knives and other torture devises. I whimper, he comes back over with a whip that looks like it has sharp razors at the end of each strand. I star to pull on the chains, "It's no use struggling I tightened those cuffs pretty tight, now this is a punishment we'll get to the interrogation later." He says and catches me off guard by a loud CRACK!

"AAAAHHH!" I scream as I realize the beating had begun. CRACK! I feel each razor slice my back a good few inches deep. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK. He gives me about 15 lashes before stopping and sets the whip back on a table. My back is in unbearable pain. My throat burns from all the cries of pain. I can feel blood run down my back, I struggle to keep my eyes open as my vision becomes blurry and my head throbs in pain. I hear Rufus moving behind me and feel him unlock my cuffs, I drop on the floor. I don't even try to get up I'm in so much pain, my eyes are so heavy I can't keep them open any longer and close them, I'm sucked into darkness.

When I wake up my back burns from pain. I open my eyes and find that I'm in a new room but its pitch black I can't even see my own hand in front of my face. I want to get up but am too weak, I start to cry as I realize that I'm dying, slowly and painfully. I'm dying with no friends, no mom or dad, no brother or sister, grandma or grandpa, no aunt or uncle. But if I do die I'll be free, free from pain and suffering, free from Rufus. By now I feel no need to even care what he does to me. Although I have no idea what the Stoned Heart is, seeing my family again is what matters most to me. I hear a door unlock, pulling me out of my thoughts, the door opens and light shines on my face forcing me to look away. When my eyes adjust to the light I look at the door way and see Rufus, I gulp.

"..What… do –y-you want?" I mumble, he walks in and crouches down above me, I look at him in fear.

"Oh, so you're starting to talk again?" he smirks reaching over me and grabs something. I look and see it's a chain bolted to the wall and he puts it on my ankle the one that's not shot. I shiver, the cuff is freezing cold. I try to get up again, but pain surges all over my back, and fall back down.

"What do y-you want?" I whimper. He chuckles,

"I want to know where to stone is." He says shifting into a kneeling position. I shake my head,

"I don't know, my parents never told me about it, honest." I start to cry.

"You expect me to believe that?" He's starting to get angry again I can tell, he stands up and raises his foot and stomps on my face

"AAAHH! PLEASE! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING I SWARE!" I cry covering my face, I can feel blood seep through my hands, my nose and lip are bleeding badly. He lifts his foot again and stomps on my shoulder and starts to kick me multiple times in the face and gut and back. I scream and shake briskly, "Stop, stop, please stop, just stop." I beg. He laughs and kicks me in the ribs and I cough out pools of blood.

Chapter 14

I wake up screaming as it echo's the empty room. This is what I didn't want the kids to experience, not just the physical pain but the mental pain. I sit up with my knees to my chest for hours in dead silence. Suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts, I hear an ear piercing scream. I lift my head up and crawl up to the front as far as the chain would let me. I see a man's body thrown through the entrance windows. I slap my hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming. As a tall man dressed in wet, ragged, torn cloths and with an old hockey mask on comes in holding a large bloody machete. I duck down when he looks my way. Then all I hear are his heavy footsteps. Fade away, I gulp and stretch my leg back tying to look out. After several minutes Rufus suddenly jumps out of nowhere sliding the cell open and covers my mouth before I can scream. I shoot back against the wall and Rufus unlocks the chain and picks me up onto my feet, still covering my mouth. I struggle a little bit but am too focused on the masked man. Where is he? Rufus pushes me a little to tell me to walk. I do but drag my broken foot a little. I look down the stairs and look at the headless body. I whimper. Rufus leans in,

"Unless you want to end up like him I suggest you come with me." he says lowly and leads me down the steps and through the doors. As we walk down many halls the power suddenly goes out. I go to stop but Rufus pushes me. After a while he takes his hand off my mouth I take a deep breath for I couldn't breathe that well with his hand over my mouth.

"Where are we going?" I whisper.

"Out the back, now shut it." He hisses. Once we reach the back of the prison he walks me to his car, but instead of him putting me in the back he put me up front next to him. He gets in the car and starts it as we drive away from the prison. I look back and see the man run out of the building and looks at me. And for some strange reason, even though I can't see through his mask, it looks like he was looking for me. I look at him until he's out of sight. Then I face forward and look at Rufus, but quickly look down once he sees me looking at him. "What?" he spits.

"Who was that? And why did you save me?" I stutter.

"I don't know who it was and I didn't save you I simply brought you with me because you friend Carter wanted you to come with us. I was originally going to leave you with the creep back there." He explains. My eyes light up as I hear Carter's name.

"Carter?! Where is he?" I say looking behind us

"He's in the back. He can't hear you he's out cold." He says smiling. I sigh in relief he's ok I thought.

"Well… where are we going now?" I say quieter

"…..I don't know." He says trailing off. I say nothing more and just go to sleep.

Chapter 15

I look at Sarah, I'm somewhat shocked that she cooperated while I moved her. I mean you would normally think that a girl in her condition would be dead or barely alive. But she's different. Heck, the girl is covered in cuts and bruises, she's practically bathed in her own blood. I know she's hiding something and that she's not all human, or she would've been dead a long time ago. Out of all the people I've tortured, she's probably the toughest one. It normally doesn't take two and a half years to interrogate someone let alone a girl as young as she is. I over hear the kids ask her why she's my favorite, it's because she doesn't give up, she never learns, and I like people like that. It means that whatever they're trying to hide is so valuable that they're risking their lives. And I love the screams and pleads. It's music to my ears. The sight of their lifeless body, oozing out blood gives me goose bumps. I'm one you would call sadistic. Correction… very sadistic. I've been doing this for half my life. Ever since I was 17 and I'm 36 and I will do this until the world is at my feet bowing to me. I'm in no rush for I am immortal. I live forever. Yes I'm 36 and I will stay the age until humanity it's self comes to extinction, just like I believe Sarah isn't all human. I'm not all human. I am a power hungry man and am not afraid to show it. And once I find out what Sarah is hiding she will be my prisoner for as long as she lives. Living a life of fear, torture, and pain. A life controlled by me. I chuckle to myself knowing she is mine, both physically and legally. I look back at my prized possession and can't help but smile at the fear in her face, as tears stream down her dirty bloody cheek. She whimpers slightly in her sleep. I can only think of what she's dreaming. Suddenly I hear the boy move in the back breaking me out of my thoughts. I glance into the review mirror and see his body move, I then look at Sarah who is fast asleep, and back at the boy. He sits up and looks out the tinted windows. He sits there for several minutes. Finally I speak lowly breaking the silence. "What do you see out there?" The boy looks back at me through the pixy glass that separates us. I see him gulp.

"Where is Sarah?" he stutters. I smirk at his fear.

"Up here next to me." I say blatantly, he sighs and lies back down. I inhale and sigh. We have a long ride a head of us. These brats better behave. Ever since Sarah ran, my patients are at the peak. I sigh and continue driving for hours, until a deer jumps in front of the car. By instinct I slam my foot on the breaks, Sarah wakes up hitting her head on the dash board. She goes to say something but I put finger up signaling her to shut up. She obeys. The deer stands there staring at us. I look at Sarah, she seems to be mesmerized by it. I could tell the deer was going to do something and I slowly put my hand on the gear shift. Sarah sees this and gulps quietly. With that the deer charges at us and in one swift move I put the car in reverse and slam the gas pedal and we drive backwards. I turn the car off road and the deer stops and walks away. I stop the car and watch it until it's out of site and we continue forward. I glace in the back and see the boy has slept through it all, I smirk looking at Sarah. She just looks out the window and I can see the side of her face I skinned. From where I'm sitting it looks ok but if I look closer I see that I'm very wrong. So I slow the car down and to a stop, she looks at me confused but I forcefully turn her head. She struggles a little but stops. I turn on the overhead light and can't believe what I see. From the edges of her peeled skin growing, instead of a scab are pure black scales. I widen my eyes and gasp slightly. She hears this,

"What?" she mumbles. I don't answer and slam the pedal turning off the light as the tires screech on the pavement. I knew It, she's not all human. But the question is, what the hell is she? And whatever she is she's going to make me a hell of a lot of money. Not by selling her fuck no but by show. I grin at the thought. But what am I going to do with the Carter boy? Hmm I don't know but I'll think of something. I always do.

Chapter 16

Rufus is acting really weird not that he does in general but more than normally. When he looked at my peeled skin he seemed shocked. Why? I put that in the back of my head and continued to look out the window. Soon the forest became desert, as I see cacti and tumble weeds everywhere, and the full moon. Eventually we drive up to a large ass building, the front doors have a faded label. We drive to the back and into a large garage and park. He gets out and grabs me and Carter. We walk in the building and go down an elevator. We go to the very last floor and there are 35 floors. He takes us down many halls and brings us into a huge room, that's pretty much empty. He sets both of us in the middle of the room,

"Stay there." He orders, we stay put but I wish I hadn't. He walks over to the other side of the room and pulls out a large computer desk and presses a few buttons. Then all of the sudden we hear a loud bang come from above us. We look up and see a huge metal cage drop over us with a loud bang when it hits the floor. I cover my ears as it echo's the room. Once it dies down I run to the front of the cage,

"Where are we?" I say, as Carter walks up next to me. Rufus walks around from the desk and to the cage. Smiling.

"Welcome to the abandoned Area 51." He introduces. Our eyes widen.

"Why are we hear?" gulps Carter,

"It's the most secretive place in the world, I found it because I used to work here." He snickers, "Oh and Sarah you got a little something right here." He finishes as he gestures to me cheek where he was looking at earlier. And walks away and out the room. Carter turns me and looks at my cheek.

"Holy shit!" he gasps backing away.

"What? What is it!?" I say touching it. I feel rough scales on my skin. I scream. "What's happening to me?!" I cry. Suddenly I pass out from shock. But when I wake up, I see that Carter has moved me to the far corner in the spot where no light can reach. But what the weirdest thing is my vision is not normal. Everything is lighter than it used to be and in certain areas I have heat thermal vision. In a way it's cool but at the same time it's creepy. When I see Carter's face I know there is something worse,

"S-S-Sarah…" He stutters.

"Rrrrr.." is all that I can say, but it can't be I thought. Carter points at me and to an old broken mirror out the cage. I look and see what he was scared of. I'm no longer a human. I'm a dragon. I roar up to the roof in agony, I roar so loud the lights shake and Carter is forced to cover his ears. I panic and run around the large cage and slam my body in to the sides of the cage as the cage itself rattles. Suddenly I trip on something slippery and fall down. I look and see what it was. I gasp as I see that I have wings and a tail. I look down and see the massive claws I possess and how sharp they are. I look up at Carter who is cowering in the corner shaking in fear. I sigh and start to walk over but he panics.

"No please Sarah don't come near me." He whimpers, I stop mid- step and back away into the dark part of the cage, and lay down. Carter is diagonal from me and he's the closest to the front of the room. eventually we both fall asleep. But not long after I lied down I hear Carter whimper, which I wouldn't hear when I was a human but I guess now that I'm a scaly freak I have super hearing or something. I open my eyes but don't move. I see Rufus has come in. This I lift my head up for he walks over to the cage but doesn't open it.

"What's with all the screaming?" he huffs. I slowly move further in the corner. Carter says nothing but looks toward me. Rufus takes the hint and opens the door but closes it behind him. He walks slowly over to me. When he comes close enough for him to see me he freezes as his jaw drops. He stumbles back a little, "What the Fuck? That can't be Sarah can it? " he stutters. I get up and slowly move to the other corner, making Carter move. He then scoffs and smirks. "Ha. I knew there was something special about you but I didn't expect anything like this." He pauses turning to Carter and walks to him. "Well Carter it looks like we're moving you." He says. But for some reason I get defensive and growl lowly, and go at Rufus. I push him with my head and he hits the cage falling on the ground. I go to attack again but he whips out a gun and shoots my underneath eye. I screech falling to the ground covering my bloody eye. Rufus quickly gets up grabs Carter and goes out the cage. I look at them with my good eye and see them walk to the desk. Rufus types something and out of nowhere another cage drops from above. But this one is much smaller, maybe about the size of the cells back at the prison. He shoves Carter in and locks the door, then walks back to the computer and continues to type. After about a minute I hear a loud clang above me. I look up, "Sarah!" he shouts I look at him but my neck is suddenly pinned on the ground. I try to get back up but I'm trapped. I scrape my claws on the floor making the high pitched sound no one likes. I flail my tail around. But nothing worked. Then I hear another loud clang from above and my torso is pinned down folding my wings against my side, now I can only move my tail. But not for long for it too is pinned down. Now I can't move at all. This done Rufus walks back to the cage. I gulp as he opens the cage and walks in front of me. He stands at the end of my snout and looks at me straight in the eyes. Boy does he look pissed. "You little brat. You may be a lizard the size of an elephant but to me your still and will always be a scared, lost little girl." He hisses venom dripping from every word he says. He looks at my eye and chuckles walking over to the side of my battered eye, I don't move my head not wanting it to be held down either. "I will tell you this though," he pauses bending down, "Now that you're no longer a human I can use my big toys on you." He laughs and walks out, locking the door. But before he leaves the room he turns back at me and Carter. "I will be watching you two." He says pointing up at the ceiling reveling cameras at each corner of the room. "And hear you." He finishes leaving. Carter spins his head around to me.

"You attacked him," he pauses I look at the ground, "Trying to protect me." he trails off, I look at him and moan. I know he can't understand what I'm saying but how can I make him understand? Carter I'm sorry.

Chapter 17

I watch Sarah and Carter for hours while calling my men, those who are still alive, to come to the new location and preparing them for what they might be in for. I look at Sarah as she grits her teeth trying to slip her tail out and Carter fast asleep. I still can't believe she's a dragon. But this will make me rich and dragons live forever too. But she's still Sarah and she is unpredictable, as in I have to keep her securely contained at all times. I have a feeling she's going to get bigger as well. I smile widely at the thought leaning back in my chair. Suddenly she roars loudly breaking me from my thoughts. I look at the camera and see her wriggle violently and scratch her massive claws in the metal floor, Carter jumps up awake. He moves to the far corner, she continues to struggle and growl. I can vaguely hear the boy trying to calm her down. I expected her to listen but then snaps and roars so loud I can hear her from my office and I'm on the floor above her. I decide to check on them. I walk down stairs but as I got closer she became louder and louder. When I reach the locked room I swing it open.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" I shout. She stops immediately but continues to grow lowly, I walk in closing the door behind me, I look at Carter as I walk past him. I walk up to the cage and Sarah struggles to shrink back. I walk in and she stops when I stand in front of her. "What are you crying about?" I hiss. She looks to her side and back at me. "What?" I look at her in confusion. She attempts to lift her head. "Ah, you don't want to be held down." I clarify. She nods, I walk out of the cage closing it, and walk to the desk.

"Are you going to behave?" I taunt she nods begging me to release her. I smile and unlock the restraints. The second she's free she jumps up onto her hind legs and spreads her massive wings. I look in awe for her wings are larger than her body. I now can see that her chest and stomach are a bright color of green. Her teeth are pearl white, and her shot eye has healed almost completely, and it's only been a few hours. Boy is she going to make me money, I snicker and leave.

Finally Rufus unlocks me and I stretch my wings in relief. I look at Carter and Rufus as they look at me in awe. Rufus smiles and leaves, I look at Carter as he looks at me. I tilt my head.

"Now that I look at you…you're beautiful." he says shyly, I smile he can see this. That means I found one way to communicate with him. I lay back down, "Oh and by the way I think you busted my ear drum." He tries to fit a little joke in there. I smile again, "And hey I'm sorry for freaking out earlier." He apologizes. I nod, its fine Carter, I could say the same thing. "Don't worry Sarah we'll get out of here. But since you're a bad ass dragon, you should really have a bad ass name…" He says, I nod in agreement.

"Nod yes and shake your head for no. Umm… Nita?" I shake my head. "Mina?" no. "Kiki?" Nope. "Nova?" I nod my head. He smiles, "Nova it is." He says proud. I like Nova better than Sarah,

"Hey Sa- Nova, can you breathe fire?" he says trailing off. I shrug, "Can you try?" I stand up and take a deep breath and concentrate on fire, but all that comes out is a loud roar, I shake my head in disappointment. "Keep practicing." He says and lies down, as do I and from there we don't say anything. After a while he falls asleep but I walk around the cage, looking for some kind of way out. But stop when the main door opens and see one of Rufus's men standing there. Petrified. I take advantage of me as a dragon and roar loudly, not meaning to wake Carter. The man screams and faints, Carter looks at me and laughs, I smile proudly. But we stop when Rufus comes running to the man.

"Tucker?" he says feeling his pulse then looks at me stepping over Tucker. I look at Rufus in discussed, as does he. "What did you do?" he spit. I smile and roar at him too but louder, making him flinch. But also making him pissed. He storms over to the desk and presses something. Suddenly I feel the floor get scorching hot and I screech I pain. I spread my wings out and flap them but they aren't strong enough to lift me. Carter yells at him to stop,

"Nova! Nova!" he yells over and over as I screech, after about a minute he stops. I paint,

"Nova?" Rufus asks.

"Her new name is Nova instead of Sarah, It sounds cooler." Carter says simply. Rufus just rolls his eyes shaking his head.

"Whatever," he pauses walking over to Carter. I growl and step up to the front. Rufus stops in front of Carter's cage and looks at me. "What?" he spits. I look at Carter and then him. He does the same. "You want him?" Rufus says confused. I nod my head away from him continuing to growl. "You want me away from him." He clarifies. I nod firmly, but he just smiles and continues to open the cage. I growl louder and deeper. Rufus steps in side and takes Carter out of the room. When he closes the door locking it, I roar loudly, CARTER! CARTER! But he doesn't come back only Rufus does. And the second he steps foot in the room. I growl so loud smoke starts to rise out of my nostrils, I see this and start to sneeze but it keeps coming, then it starts to burn. I panic and shoot back. Hitting the back of the cage, it stops. I stand there a few seconds seeing if it comes back. It doesn't, I move my attention back to Rufus who is at the desk chuckling. I grunt pacing in the cage.

"Ok Sarah," He starts but I cut him off with a small grunt. He looks at me, "I call you what I want." He spits, I back off slightly. "Let's start with some tests, see how powerful you really are." He snickers. I gulp silently, knowing Rufus's tests are agonizing, long and sometimes deadly. I whimper looking at the door hoping Carter would come barging through. Suddenly a glass box rises from the ground around the cage, it stops a few feet above the cage, then water starts to fill the box, I look at Rufus scared. He's going drown me. I screech, throwing myself against the cage. No! No! Please Rufus No! I roar, he just looks at me, waiting for the box to fill.

Chapter 18

When the water reaches just below my neck I stand on my hind legs and just before it goes over my head completely I breathe in as much air as possible and hold my breath. I stay still trying to stay calm. I look at Rufus as another man comes in and walks over to him. They are blurry, if I listen carefully I can faintly hear their muffled voices. After a while I start to get light headed and I start to sink to the bottom of the cage. Rufus sees this and starts to lower the water. The second the water is fully drained out I gasp deeply and cough. It takes a minute or so for my vision to clear and see that more men had arrived. I weakly stand up and stair them down showing my teeth.

"Her teeth are pretty." Says one man,

"Love her wings," Says another.

"So this is still Sarah?" Says the first man.

"Yeah didn't she kill Travis back in the forest?" says a man standing at the end. The men nod.

"Ok enough chit- chat. Yes this is Sarah, ever wondered why she didn't die long ago? Well this is why." explains Rufus.

"Well that makes sense, dragons are immortal." Says the man at the end.

"Exactly, they feel pain, but have to live with it for eternity. We're here to see how much pain she can handle and what she's capable of." Finishes Rufus.

"Fair enough but what are we going to do with the Carter boy? What good is he?" says the first man. The second I hear Carter I growl. The men jump.

"Carter is none of your concern right now, and I wouldn't mention him around her, she seems to be getting protective of him for some odd reason." Comments Rufus and continues. "We will be doing up to 12 tests a day 6 days a week. I want you to be in charge of getting her prepped for each test that does not involve the computer." Rufus pauses, and points to the man I scared earlier, Tucker. "I want you to feed her ever other five days along with water. Do I make myself clear?" he commands. Tucker pouts

"Why me?" he wines.

"Would you like to be her first meal?" he hisses. He shakes his head rapidly, "Good. We will start with 3 tests today, this one was to see how long she could hold her breath, this test showed she could hold it for 38.45 minutes. Next we will see how much electricity she can absorb." Rufus says. I gulp, as he presses a button and the floor and sides of the cage electrocute me. I screech as my vision comes and goes. But over my cries of pain I hear the men cry in pain. And then everything goes black, when I open my eyes the room is black except for the emergency light above me, I weakly sit up and look down to see that I have a human hand. Shocked I look at my other hand. Human. Was it just a dream? Was I really a dragon? I stand up and see my clothes are torn, and my eye is battered up. Nope it wasn't a dream, but what happened? I look ahead and see the men that were here sprawled out on the floor in the front, blood everywhere. Dead, I look and see Rufus unconscious but not dead. What the hell happened? Suddenly I hear a glass bottle break, I jump and look behind me and see the masked man from the old prison standing outside the cage. I yelp and run to a corner, as he walks up to me from the

outside, he holds a bloody machete. He opens the cage but stands at the door making sure I don't escape. He backs me up into the corner and leans into my face. At times like this I wish I was Nova and not Sarah. He raises his weapon I shut my eyes but peek and see that he is only putting it away.

"So you're not going to kill me?" I whimper. HA! I can talk! I smile widely inside. But snap back into reality when he brushes his dirty hand on my cheek stopping when he comes across my scar in my cheek. He looks at me through his old hockey mask. For some reason I can tell what he's asking me. "I- I was cut." I stutter. "What are you going to do to me? Who are you?" I say. He puts his hand up and starts to spell words, sign language.

'My name is Jason, I'm not going to hurt you.' He signs reaching his hand out. I slowly grab it.

"What are you doing here, how did you find me?" I continue.

'Easy I followed the car tracks.' He signs I giggle but stop abruptly. 'What's the matter?' he signs concerned

"I don't remember the last time I laughed." I mumbled. He tugs me lightly telling me to follow him, we walk past the dead bodies and Rufus. The second we step out of the room, I hear Carter yelling my name, "Carter!" I yell back but Jason holds on tighter, "No Jason please we have to help him too he's one of Rufus's victims" I beg. He nods and follows me. I follow Carter's voice, leading us down the hall into a room where he was tied up against a pole. I run over to him uniting him. He wraps me in a tight hug.

"Nova! You're human!?" he gasps looking at me.

"Yeah I don't know how but I decided to call dragon me Nova and human me Sarah. Oh and this is Jason he helped me escape." I point to Jason he nods.

"Aren't you like a serial killer or something?" Carter says Jason nods. "Then why are you helping us?"

'I've seen how Nova or Sarah is treated and I can relate to that so I had to do something. I tried killing Rufus be can't somehow he's immortal and can't be killed, same thing with Sarah.' He signs. Me and Carter look at each other.

"So how are we going to get out of here?" I say as we start walking

"Do you know how to switch between Nova and Sarah yet?" asks Carter, I shake my head. Jason taps my shoulder.

'I have an idea how you can become this Nova,' he begins I nod for him to continue. ' I think you were in so much pain that your human body could not handle the pain and you switched to a more powerful form until that form could not hold the pain either, and you will continue to do this until you can learn to switch on command.' He sign

"That makes sense, quick Carter hit me in the stab wound." I say.

"No way! I'm not going to hurt you!" he says. Jason taps me again but this time more firmly I look and see Rufus stumble out the room holding his head where blood dripped down.

'Um can we talk about this later?' he quickly signs we start to run.

"What now?!" Carter panics. I look back and Rufus runs after us.

"Jason! If I can't die… stab me! Stab me as hard as you can!" I yell. Jason pulls out the machete. But signs,

'Wait till we are outside, that way if you do change we can escape on your back!'

"You mean ride her?" clarifies Carter. Jason nods as do I, and the second we reach outside we stop, catching our breath. I look back, no Rufus. Where did he go?

Chapter 19

We look around and see nothing. It's dark out so that didn't help a lot.

"Sarah…" I hear Carter whimper.

"Jason I think now would be a good time-" I say, he catches me off guard as he stabs my shoulder and I fall hard to the ground screaming, Carter rushes to my side, "No Carter get a way!" I yell as I can already feel me changing. First my vision, then I feel wings sprout out my back, then claws form on my hands and feet. Then fangs and so on. But what changed was my size, I was twice as big than last time. Once I was fully formed I lay on the ground, shaking. Now Carter comes over,

"Nova! Get up he's coming!" He shouts. I open my eyes and shakily stand up looking down they look so small. I bend down allowing them to climb on my back. I look back one last time and see Rufus and his men on motorcycles and cars speeding after us. "GO!" he shouts. I start to run. "Can't you fly?" I shake my head, "Hold your wings out!" I do and soon I feel my feet lift off the ground, here I start to flap and soon we are high in the sky. They cheer on my back. Wow I thought to myself, I'm flying. I look down and see Rufus and his men get farther and farther soon they're out of site. I look ahead, and then over my shoulder. Both Carter and Jason are fast asleep. Where to now? I thought than it hit me. Victor, I'm going back to Victor. I lower down so I can see better but being cautious. I look for the house he stays at with the other kids. It took several hours and I don't know but I found it, a spark of hope lit in my heart. I landed in the trees, and reached over my shoulder and carefully picked up Jason and Carter setting them next to a tree. This done I walk over to the door. But before I rang the bell I thought to myself, how is he going to recognize me? I thought hard. Finally I decided that since I can't talk to him, I'll write to him. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell with my tail. Soon the porch light turned on and the door opened and saw Victor. He went to scream but I quickly put my tail over his mouth, telling him to be quiet. Slowly I take my tail off, and wrote in the dirt. 'Please don't scream I know you don't recognize me but maybe you'll remember this' I write, and show him the stab wound I showed him long ago. He stands there for a second looking at it. And then looks at me with a tear falling down.

"S-Sarah?" he sighs. I nod and lower my head feeling a tear escape my eye too. He slowly walks up to me. "I-I can't believe it, what happened?" he stutters. I write in the dirt,

'Rufus has done the unspeakable to me and then one day I disobeyed him and he punishes me by skinning me, starting at my face. A few days later a masked man comes in and kills some other men, Rufus comes and takes me and another kid, to another place, the old Area 51. On our way there he notices my face, that instead of a scab forming, black scales were. Then when we get there he takes me and the boy in and locks us up in a giant cage, and knocks me out. I woke up like this. Then the masked man comes and finds me again and it turns out he was trying to help me, he told me that the reason I haven't die yet…is because I'm part dragon. And that dragons are immortal. They can't die but they can feel pain just as well as humans. I can switch from a human to a dragon. I've decided to call the dragon me Nova and the human me Sarah.' Write down taking a while but when Victor read it he looks up and goes to hug me, I put my head on the ground and let him hug my snout tightly. We shed tears, he sees my shot eye.

"Sarah or Nova why did you come back?" he sniffs

'Because to me you are my only family, for mine is all dead. I've been homeless even before Rufus kidnapped me, let alone knew me. After what you did for me I couldn't just let you walk out of my life, I want you to become a part of it.' I write.

"Well you're in luck my dear." He hugs me again I smile widely and soon begin to feel myself turn human. I look up at him, "Sarah your human!" he gasps, I look down shocked

"But I'm not hurt." I say. Victor looks at me confused. "Jason, the masked man said that he thinks I change from Nova to Sarah based on the amount of pain they endure." I explain.

"Well maybe it's not only physical pain, maybe it's emotional too." he smiles, about to walk me in.

"Wait, I want you to meet someone," I smile, I go get the others and walk back to Victor, "I want you to meet Jason and Carter, without them I wouldn't be here."

"Thank you two so much come inside." Victor greets them in.

Chapter 20

I curse to myself as Sarah flies away, great now she's going to be even harder to find. I hit my steering wheel, I thought to myself, if I was her where would I go? She has no home, she's injured so she couldn't have gone far, I tap my foot. Then I smile having a guess and radio my men to follow me. But before we hit the road we need to go back and get some supplies. I laugh, this girl is going to wish she was never born.

We walk in the house, I can sense that Carter and Jason are uneasy.

"It's ok guys, you can trust him." I whisper, Victor walks us to the common room,

"Sit here, I'll go get Trudy, but stay quiet, the rest of the house is asleep." He says and leaves going up stairs. I look over at the kitchen and remember the night when I first met Victor. Carter sees this and taps my arm.

"You okay Sarah?" he says concerned. I nod.

'Liar, what's the matter?' signs Jason.

"Over there next to the fridge, it was my first night here I sat curled up, scared alone, not knowing what to do next, not knowing if I could trust anyone ever again…" I trail off. Carter brings me in to a hug. I don't fight and fall into his arms.

"Sarah, my heart aches from your pain. No one should ever go through what you're going through right now. I promise that as long as I live I won't let anyone ever hurt you. Especially that bastard Rufus." He says stroking my hair.

"Thanks Carter." I mumble. Jason nods in agreement,

'We're in this together.' He signs. At that moment Victor comes back with Trudy. She gasps and runs to me.

"Oh Sarah sweetie, I was so worried about you!" She says relieved hugging me. "Come on lets go get you cleaned up." She takes me up stairs and into the bathroom. She gets me new clothes and then I go in to the bathroom. But stare at myself when I look in the mirror, my clothes are shredded, stained with layers of blood, from crimson red to faded brown. My face looks like it's been mauled by a bear. I take off the rest of my clothes and examine the rest of my body, my chest is covered in scars and stab wounds. My stomach is covered in several burn spots and stab wounds, and bruises. My back is shredded nearly to the bone from all the whips. Rufus has destroyed my life. I shake my head forcing myself not to think like that, and look at the clothes Trudy gave me, a pair of gym shorts and a blue t-shirt. Once I put these on I go back downstairs where I see Trudy and the others sitting around the couch. We talk for a few hours and then go to sleep where we lay.

I order my men to pack everything that can hold a dragon down. Rope, chains, bolts, you name it. We bring guns, electric rods, chained whips and a huge tow truck to carry her on. We bring helicopters and planes knowing she will try to fly away and all have a full tank. We are ready to catch a dragon.

In the morning I wake up to Victor shouting from the entrance.

"Wake up Patricia! You're the only one left in bed and unless you want to stay back from school and clean the house I'd get your rear down here!" he shouts annoyed, I open my eyes and see Carter but not Jason, I get up and wake him up.

"Carter?" I whisper. His eyes flutter open, "Where's Jason?" he sits up rubbing the eye crust away.

"He left when you fell asleep last night, he said he'll be back I don't know where he went though." He says tiredly I nod and walk to the kitchen Carter follows. Trudy was already making breakfast. Biscuits and gravy with eggs.

"Good morning children, how was your sleep?" she says cheerfully

"Good thank you." Says Carter sitting down at the table.

"Yeah I can't remember the last time I slept like that." I snicker. Then the rest of the kids come in, Mick Mara, Joy, Patricia, Amber, Nina, Fabian, Eddie, Jerome, and Alfie. Wait, Amber, Nina, Jerome, Alfie? "Nina?!" I gasp. She looks my way and her jaw drops

"SARAH!?" she yells and the others look at me. They run over and hug me.

"What!? I thought you were dead?" says Alfie. Trudy jerks her head at us. I push them out of the room in to the front entry way.

"I thought you were, what happened?" I start

"Rufus kicked us out, he said he had more important things to handle and that he didn't need us getting in the way." Explained Amber. "What happened to you? You look terrible."

"Amber!" the other spit. She backs off,

"I don't want to talk about it, oh by the way this is Carter he helped me escape." I say pointing to him. He nods. I'm about to say something when the doorbell rings. Me and Carter look at each other, and run up stairs accidently running into Victor.

"In my office now." He orders. We go in and close the door and look out the window into the entry way. Trudy answers it and we see two police officers come in. I gulp. Victor goes down, we can kind of hear what there're saying.

"Good morning gentleman what can I do for you?" greets Victor, closing the door behind them.

"Yes we got a call last night saying that something large landed in the woods in the front of your house, do you know anything about that?" says the first cop.

"No sir I'm sorry, I was not aware of any activity outside last night." Victor says while the second cop looks around and glances up at us. We quickly duck down before he can see us. But he did.

"Hey! You up there, Come down here!" we hear him shout. Me and Carter look at each other, scared. "Now!" He raises his voice. He stands up and helps me to my feet. We walk down stairs and to the officers. Victor looks at us worried,

"What are your names?" Says the first cop, I read his badge reading his name. Troy. And the other one was Rick.

"My name is Carter Waters."

"I'm Sarah Higgins."

"Sarah, what the hell happened to your face?" spits officer Troy, I gulp before speaking,

"I was in a car wreck sir." He nods lightly,

"Can I see your arms Sarah?" Asks officer Rick. Holding out my arms, Rick examines them.

"What kind of car accident?" he says. I don't think he believes me.

"A drunk driver hit me and my parents sir." I quickly make up.

"Did anyone survive?" Says Troy , I shake my head. "I'm sorry."

"Can you do me a favor and come with us? You to son?" says Rick we follow him outside to the place where I landed last night. "Is this your name?" he points to the spot where I wrote to Victor. Shit I thought to myself. I nod, "It says here you decided to call the human me Sarah and the dragon me Nova. And if you'll come over here," He says as we walk over to where I set Jason and Carter down. "Can you tell me what this is?" he points to a large foot print. A dragon foot print.

"A foot print sir." What do I do?

"Sarah it says in your medical records that your parents were murdered when you were 5 years old." Says Troy looking on the car's computer. I widen my eyes, glancing at Victor and Carter. Rick turns back to me.

"So how did you get those scars again?" he hisses.

"…..I…uh- I…," I sigh. "Those are my foot prints sir." I mumble. Carter gasps. "I was doing a school project involving medieval mysteries, I pretended to be a dragon that lost its parents and this is my special effects make up." I point to my scars. I wish they were fake.

"Oh ok. That makes sense. Next time just tell the truth, it would be a lot easier." Says Rick, I nod.

"You have a good one." I say as the y leave, once they were out of sight, everyone hugs me.

"How did you do that?" Says Carter.

"Practice I guess." I blush,

"Aright everybody. Those who have school you're going to be late." Says Trudy everyone but me and Carter stayed back.

Chapter 21

Considering Sarah can fly it probably took her a few hours or so to reach her destination, as for me I'm driving so it's going to take a lot longer than it took her. I've been driving all night and half the morning when I look ahead and see trees crashed to the ground. I smile slowing down cruising past them. I see blood on the branches. Sarah, I thought, I'm getting close. But remember that once I get there I have to take it slowly. Not like last time. I continue up the road as a large school came into view. I park to the side of the road with some other cars, blending in. I radio my men to set up camp in the woods, and set up traps. This done I turn off the car and wait patiently for the right time to strike.

Once everyone left for school me and Carter ask Trudy if we can look around outside.

"Sure, just be back by lunch." We thank her and leave. As we walk down the school's path I see many kids laughing and running around. I stop and look at them,

"You okay Sarah?" says Carter breaking me from my thoughts. I shrug. "What's the matter?"

"This place reminds me of my mom." I say looking down sitting on the curb across the other side of the street facing the school. Carter sits next to me.

"Why?" he continues.

"My mom used to come here. She said the school has many secrets waiting to be found but she never got to finish them." I explain.

"What kind of secrets?" he asks. I shrug.

"You know I love a good mystery…" he trails off smiling.

"So do I…" I say catching the hint.

"What do you know?" he chuckles.

"Well I remember Nina and them came back late the other night from outside." I think,

"Maybe there's something in the woods. I heard there is a cemetery past the bike shed."

"Let's go!" I giggle as we run across the street, in the woods. When we get to the bike shed I stop at the door and Carter passes me but stops when he notices I did. He comes back where I was standing.

"What's the matter?" he says. I don't answer to scared to speak, I recognize this area. I open the shed, revealing… chains attached to the back wall. I gulp walking in, Carter follows. "What is this place?" he whispers, I don't answer. Walking over to the cuffs I see old blood.

"No way…" I say to myself.

"What?" he says walking over to me.

"Carter, I think this is where Rufus kept me before he took me to the old prison." I say picking it up. The blood is all dry and crusty. I hear Carter shiver,

"Creepy. Come on let's go. "he says going to walk out but I grab his arm stopping him. "What?"

"Shhh I heard someone…" I worn. We freeze as we can hear talking. I drag Carter to a stack of boxes on the far corner. We hide behind them. The talking gets closer. Now we can hear what there're saying,

"No I swear, I'm not lying dude, it was a dragon!" says one voice. Carter looks at me,

"Tyler, dude you drank too much last night, and even if there is such thing as a stupid dragon, I could kill It with my eyes closed." Says another voice.

"Greg you never believe me." Wines Tyler. I look at Carter and smile.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I snicker, he nods smiling and moves a way. The guys are outside so I move out from behind the boxes and breath in deeply, it was easy turning into Nova, I hold a lot of emotional pain. I grow to the size of a killer whale. I look at Cater who gives me thumbs up. I nod and barge out the shed breaking it and roar so loud it echo's. The guys scream

"AAAAAAHHHHH! I TOLD YOU T-THEY ARE REAL! AAAHH!" shrieks Tyler going to run, but I snatch him with my tail and pick him up by his leg, I raise him, as he continues to scream. Hey I can scream too! I thought shrieking loudly as he covers his ears. Suddenly I feel my foot get hit, of course it didn't hurt, but it made me MAD. I drop Tyler and he lands on his back but gets up and runs I look and see that Greg threw a large branch, I roar shooting up in the sky.

"Nova!" I hear Carter yell but I don't listen, and fly after them, I lower to the ground catching up to them.

Chapter 22

Not long after I arrived I hear the shirking of two boys run out of the woods running in front of my car. I quickly radio my men.

"We might have something here." I say and just then Sarah in her dragon form flies out of the woods, only a few feet above the ground. She is so focused on the boys she doesn't even notice me. I widen my eyes as her form is getting bigger. "NOW!" I shout over the radio. As the helicopter flies over the trees.

I rush out if the woods on the boys tails. They run into the field where the soccer team was practicing,

"LOOK OUT!" shouts Greg. And like ant's everyone panics, when I'm about to attack I feel a sudden pain in my shoulder. I land roughly looking up to see a green helicopter. I grunt and shoot after it. It retreats high in the air I follow it. After a several thousand feet I see men jump out letting the chopper fall. I turn around and dive after them. Suddenly I feel a burning sensation in my lungs, so I open my mouth and for the first time I breath fire. The flames miss the men barley. As we got closer to the ground they deploy the parachutes moving a side. I try to stop, fanning out my wings but I'm too late and crash into the soccer field as dirt and debris fly everywhere. I sit up weakly and my vision blurry and my hearing faint. I open my eyes a little, I hear sirens, yelling and see Carter being held back by someone. Everything is in slow motion, soon my senses come back and see I'm surrounded by people. I go to stand up but a spiked chain is suddenly wrapped around my ankle, I screech and look back and see a handful of Rufus's men holding that one chain. I look and see more are pushing the people away.

"NOVA! RUN!" I hear Carter shout. I look and see him being dragged away into one of the vans. I growl and go to him but another spiked chain is thrown on me. This one is wrapped around my neck.

"AAAHH CARTER!" I roar. Whoa, it's about time I can speak human when I'm Nova.

"Nova you can speak!?" he says. I roar in pain as more men hold me down.

"LET HER GO!" he shouts. More spiked chains are thrown on me, holding my tail, legs and head. All coming from different directions, crossing over the other I fall to the ground. Finally after endless fighting for the both of us, we are silenced by a shot gun fired in the air. Me and Carter look where it came from. Rufus,

"Oh shit." We say at the same time quietly. Rufus walks in the crowed, the men who are free let him through. He comes straight to me, I growl as a warning to get back, but he yanks on the chain that's holding my neck, digging the spikes in my neck, I stop, wincing.

"Oh Sarah, what am I going to do with you?" he sighs walking to me. I growl, he puts his finger up signaling the man holding my neck to pull tighter, I let out a choke feeling warm blood drip down staining the grass. "When will you learn that I'll always catch you?" He continues. I dig my claws deep in the ground, how did I breath fire?! He crouches down. "And this time, you're going to be in these chains for as long as I want you to be in them." he growls snapping his fingers and then I black out.

When I wake up, I'm back in the large cage, still in the spiked chains, just like Rufus said. I look around for Carter but he's not in here. I stand up but wince as the spikes dig in my skin. I try to concentrate on changing back to Sarah but can't for some reason.

After a few days of doing nothing I hear crying down the hall. I move my head towards the door but don't lift it up, for when I ever do the spikes dig in.

"No please let me go!" cries a little girl, I see a man drag her in the room. She freezes when she sees me she looks about 6 years or something. The man stands at the door way, looking down the hall as the girl looks at me, I look at her. Soon Rufus comes in the room with the two following him in. He walks to the desk and presses something, suddenly the sound of something powering down causes me to lift my head up, wincing, but I keep it up. Rufus then grabs the girl's arm a drags her to me. He opens the cage and throws her in, she lands on her face, Rufus comes in too having the man stand at the door way. I stand up backing a way, the girl scoots away from me but Rufus doesn't allow this and pushes her forward to me. I growl at Rufus but scaring the girl, she struggles but he holds on tighter as he walks closer to me. I growl louder, I don't want him near me, and I don't know what he's intending to do with the girl. "Please no!" she whimpers,

"Come on Fay, say hi to Nova." Rufus purrs, throwing her on the ground but pulls out a gun before she can get up. I widen my eyes. No not again I thought. "Move away and I'll shoot." He hisses. She freezes not taking her eyes off me. We stare at each other for several minutes when I smell a wonderful sent, I lift my nose in the air, "Now she smells her." Rufus whispers, I pay him no attention. My nose follows the sent I close my eyes and let it lead. But when the smell becomes so strong I hear a whimper. I open my eyes and see it's the girl. Why does she smell so good? Then it hit me, Rufus making her come near me and her smelling tasty, he wants me to eat her! I growl loudly and pull back, the girl screams and runs to the corner, Rufus quickly runs out shutting the cage. I go to run after him but forget I'm chained and the spikes dig deeply into my skin, I screech as blood pours down, I fall to the ground in pain. Rufus then runs to the desk and presses something causing the chains to shock me. I cry to the skies, this lasts for minutes and finally it stops. I collapse on the floor as the chains tighten keeping me from getting up anymore and only letting me lift my head a few feet. I lay motionless and wheezing.

"She won't eat her." I hear the man say to Rufus.

"She's hungry, she'll eat her eventually." He says and leaves with the man. The girl looks at me scared. I know what she's thinking, I weakly shake my head, no I would never eat you. But Rufus was right I'm starving. She looks at me surprised,

"You can understand him?" she says quietly, in nod slowly, my eyes are heavy and my body weak. "And me?" I nod again, she starts to say something but I black out.

Chapter 23

I sit in my office watching Sarah and the girl, Fay. She was originally supposed to be killed by Sarah but I guess that's not going to happen. I don't worry about it that much, but she has to eat something eventually. Especially after tomorrow, I switch to another camera to see the boy. He's lying in the corner of a room asleep. He hasn't moved in hours, I radio one of my men to check on him. Soon I see in go in the room and poke him with their foot, the boy turns around confused, the man leaves as Carter turns back around. I sigh deeply leaning back in my chair and continue to watch the brats. Eventually I drift off to sleep. A few hours went by and I'm woken up by my door swung open. And see it's Ron, one of my men, I roll my eyes

"This better be good." I groan still half asleep.

"Sorry to disturb you sir but you might want to come see this." He says, I get up and follow.

When I wake up I don't see Fay sitting in the corner. I look around but suddenly feel a small movement under my right wing. I look and see that it was her. I feel the need to protect her just like with Carter. But why? I lower my wing giving her warmth, I sigh deeply. How am I going to cope with this? If Rufus wants me to eat humans than how am I going to survive? Soon the door opens breaking me from my thoughts. I move my wing bringing the girl closer to me, and growl quietly not wanting to wake her up. In walks the man from earlier and Rufus.

"What?" Spits Rufus.

"Look under her right wing." Says the man. Rufus walks in the cage and to my right side, I growl lowly.

"Oh shut up Sarah." He hisses annoyed. But I continue and move the girl closer. Rufus sees this and stops at my wing. "What's under there?" he sighs, I do nothing. He turns to the man outside, "What is it?" Rufus says tiredly.

"The girl moved under her wing and now Sarah is protecting her from you." He explains. Rufus looks back at my smirking

"Just like with Carter huh?" he chuckles. "Can I at least see her?" I shake my head, "Why is that?" he smiles. I look at him, ok fine, but I slide my tail under my wing and gently wrap it around the tiny girl, and slowly lift up my wing. Rufus looks under, and walks back to the front of me. I lower my wing, "You know you can't protect these kids. Just look how well you're protecting yourself." He says sneering. I look down at the girl, I know I shouldn't talk when I'm Nova but I don't think Sarah's coming back anytime soon.

"I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about what these kids might have to go through. What I'm going through." I say calmly. I expected him to be shocked for speaking but he just takes it as if he's talking to another human.

"Not all of the kids are or will go through what you're going through, and not all of them are going to spend the rest of their useless lives with me, unlike you do." He explains leaning against the cage, signaling the man to leave.

"Then why did you expect me to eat her?" I point out,

"I'm simply trying to find out what you're going to eat" he states

"Well you can take humans off the menu." I sass but he laughs,

"Then what will you eat Sarah, we're miles from the slightest bit of civilization." He says. I shrug.

"Nothing." I simply state, he nods smiling

"We'll find something and whether you like or not your stomach will take over your head and force you to eat whatever is in front of you." He chuckles and walks out of the cage locking it. But he turns around before leaving the room. "And enjoy your time with her, she was wanted somewhere else if she lived." He says and leaves. I sigh lifting my wing, and look at her, she's so peaceful how could he expect me to eat her? I lay my head down and go to sleep.

I wake up to the girl crawling out from under my wing. I slide my head looking at her. She looks at me and to my wrist, she walks over to it. She gasps slightly noticing the blood, she lifts up the spiked cuff. I wince a little. I look too and widen my eyes for I haven't noticed the gaping holes that are being formed.

"What else has he done to you?" she says quietly. I lower my head showing her the many scars he's given me, I stand up and show her my chest reviling the stab wounds. I see a tear slide down her pale face. I wipe it away gently with my claw. She reaches her tiny hand out to it, holding it close. "Why does he do this to you?" she sniffs. As if on cue Rufus comes in. I pull her close growling. She looks up at me shocked but follows.

"I hope you've gotten to know each other but I'm sorry, Fay, I'm afraid you have to leave Sarah." He coos.

"Please Mr. No, Leave me alone" she whimpers, I look down and lift her up onto my back high off the ground and stand up. I feel her tiny hands hold tight.

"Oh come on Sarah don't be like that." Rufus says stopping at the desk. "She's going to have to go eventually." He continues as he presses buttons. I look at the girl, I can't let Rufus take her, she's far too young to die. I gulp looking back at him. He lifts his head up at me his hand on a button, "I'm going to give you the count of 5 to put her down, or she's going down with you." He says. I gulp hard, the girl whimpers. I have to think quickly. Then he starts to count. The girl starts to cry. I franticly look around, then I had an idea, I stand on my hind legs lifting her up to the top of the cage, she understands what I want her to do and grabs on the bars lifting herself up and sitting on top. Rufus stops counting, and just looks at me pissed. I grunt standing my ground. "Do you really want to do push my buttons?" he hisses. I do nothing, he sighs and presses the button, causing the spiked chains to sink into my skin and don't stop, and then they pull me back yanking me. I screech in pain, as I feel my skin separate. I flail my head around desperate to slip out of the neck brace. With great amount of blood and pain I am able to do so but the spikes have dug so deep I start to literally choke on my own blood. I gag on the blood as it drips on the floor from my mouth and neck. My vision begins to blur and my head spins uncontrollably. Finally I collapse hard on the floor into the pool of blood, splattering it.

Chapter 24

I wake up in my human form, I find myself sprawled out on the floor in the pool of my blood. I want to move but am too weak. I notice that the spiked chains have been removed, for now. I weakly lift my head up, my vision blurry as fuck, I close my eyes and lay my head back down but lift it up again when I hear an evil laugh.

"Well look who's finally awake, you've been out for days." I hear Rufus chuckle. I don't move, I hear his footsteps walk into the cage, now I start to move but very slow. He walks over to me, and flips me onto my back. I cry out in pain, feeling blood run down my mouth. I look at the ceiling and see the girl was gone.

"W-…..where i-..is she?" I stutter, he looks up and back down at me,

"Oh Fay? She's gone." He smiles, I widen my eyes,

"Y- you killed.. her?!" I spit,

"Oh no, no, no, she's not in the building." He clarifies, bending down, his head blocking the light. "How much stupider can you get?" he adds lifting up my chin gesturing to my neck

"Ahh!" I wince.

"If you were human, you would be very much dead." He chuckles leaning in, "But you're not, you're a bloody lizard." He sneers. "Who never will die." He finishes and stands back up. I turn on my side and drag myself to the corner and curl up. He's about to walk out of the cage,

"R-Rufus?" I mumble. He stops dead in his tracks, turning around smiling widely.

"My, my Sarah, I don't believe I've ever heard you say my name," he purrs walking over back to me. I gulp loudly, and curl up more. He crouches down in front of me. "How can I help you my dear?" he coos.

"….I..I'm hung-ry." I stutter quietly. He smiles,

"Hmm, told you you'd have to eat eventually." He snickers standing up and walks to the door closing and locking it, "What do you want?" he turns around before leaving.

"Anything but a human." I say and he leaves. I sigh crying slightly. No more, I thought. I can't take any more pain. I'm never going to see the sun again, breathe fresh air, nothing. Why do I have to be immortal? I'm going to have to live like this forever. I look at the floor that is covered with smeared blood, almost every inch is covered with it. Rufus comes back with and bowl of fruit and sets it in front of me. I thought he was going to leave but he leans on the cage wall in front of me. I pick up the fruit bowl and see apples, peeled oranges and strawberries. I eat them at a steady pace not wanting to look so desperate. Even though I haven't eaten anything in weeks,

"Aren't you immortal too?" I ask quietly breaking the silence.

"I am, yes." Nods Rufus.

"When did you find out?" I say taking another bite.

"When I was 17 and I'm 36 now and will stay this way for eternity." He explains,

"So what are you going to do to me now?" I ask finishing. He stands straight and picks up the bowl,

"Well I got meetings all this week so you're in luck, no experimenting for a while." He smiles and walks out of the cage to the main door. I stop him one last time,

"Wait…can I ask you a few questions before you leave?" I stutter.

"Like?" he turns around.

"What is it that you want from me?" I ask first,

"To see how powerful you are. Next." He spits

"Will I eventually die? And are you ever going to let me go?" I hurry and say, sensing he was getting impatient with all the talking.

"No you will never die, immortal means you live forever, no matter how injured you get or how much blood you lose. And about the last one… none of your business." He nods and leaves, noticing he left the main door open. I say nothing and take advantage on looking at something other than the desk for endless hours.

Chapter 25

I watch as people walk past the room back and forth, so this is what happens while the door is closed, I thought. I've been sitting with my knees to my chest for hours now and my legs are starting to go to sleep so I decide to stand up and walk around, I have an idea, what if there is a way I can become Nova but as a human size. I don't see the reason behind it I'm just curious. I sit down and let pain take over. And yet within a few minutes I'm Nova and notice that my neck is healing faster than I expected, I guess that's on advantage of being half dragon, you heal quicker. I shack my head snapping back into reality. I see that I'm big Nova so I try to concentrate smaller. Smaller tail, snout, body, everything. Within about 2-3 minutes I'm the size of 2 men. Hmm it actually worked, I turn back into Sarah and sit back down in the corner.

I'm about to drift off to sleep when I hear a familiar scream, Carter. I jump up and run to the front of the cage.

"CARTER!" I shout.

"SARAH! HELP THERE GOING TO KILL ME!" He shouts as I see him being dragged past the room.

"NOOOO! CARTER!" I shout, feeling sudden rage, I grow into the biggest Nova ever, out growing the cage itself. I push it off and tear the wall down, scaring the men, who start to shoot me, but my vision strangely becomes a bright glowing blue, I can still see them, just in blue. Weird, I roar so loud flames blow out my mouth, the men scream and retreat, one runs away with Carter, my eyes lock on him and I go to open my mouth again but suddenly see a door swing open from the other side of the hall and Rufus and a few men come out,

"What hell is goi-"he says but freezes when he sees me. His eyes widen as he sees me. "HOW DID SHE GET OUT!?" He shouts.

"She heard the boy and she freaked out!" Says a man,

"Where is he!?" Rufus roars, I see Carter pushed onto the floor I go to run to him but Rufus snatches him before I could get to him and puts a gun to his head, I freeze. "You want him Sarah? HUH!?" he shouts pissed, I roar and take a step forward but Rufus cocks the gun, I freeze, calming down feeling myself shrink into human form. The glowing stops and men restrain me. Rufus throws Carter on the ground but still has the gun pointed at him. "Ok let's start over, what the hell happened?" he says shouting.

"So apparently she heard the boy and she freaked out and out grew the cage and it broke, then she tore the wall down and started to glow and then you came out." Says the men holding me. Rufus calls one of his men over to him,

"Hold this." He starts, having the man hold the gun to Carter's head as Rufus walks to me. I gulp unnoticed. "First off who the hell said to execute the damn boy?" he starts kicking me onto my back. I grunt going to get up but stay put when Rufus points at me. Giving me a look saying 'Don't move'.

"Trevor did sir." Says a man behind me. Rufus raises his eye brows,

"The new kid?" he confirms, the men nod. "Where is he?" he asks pissed. The men make a path way for a boy about 27 to walk through. "Come here." Spits Rufus. "Why?" is all Rufus had to ask him

"The place is too boring around here so I said that you ordered the kid to get executed." He says shyly,

"Boring?! Boy, you are working with a fucking dragon who is out of control. You call that boring?" Chuckles Rufus. Trevor nods. "Well than what isn't?" he crosses his arms

"Being one I guess…" Trevor trails off,

"Being one?… Ok, well unfortunately, " Rufus pauses and pulls out his gun and shoots him in the head as he drops dead, "That can't happen, but what will happen is this." He looks at everyone, "If anything like this happens again," he shoots the dead body again. "You'll end up taking a little nap. Do I make myself clear!?" he shouts.

"Yes sir!" the men say in unison.

"Good, now put the boy back where ever he was and…" Rufus thought looking at the torn down wall and down at me. "What are we going to do with you Sarah?" he sighs bending down, I lower my head. He lifts my chin up, "How did you do that?" he asks quietly, dismissing the men. I shake my head,

"I don't know." I mumble turning onto my side going to get up but Rufus grabs my arm

"Stay down Sarah. What do you mean you don't know?" he says, I lay back down, wanting to go back to sleep. He let's go of my arm and shifts into a kneeling position. Knowing I won't go anywhere, and I won't I'm far too weak.

"I just freaked out." I say laying my head down. Rufus tilts his head,

"Did that glowing thing take up a lot of your energy?" he asks I nod. I look at him confused "What?"

"Aren't you going to beat the shit out of me? I just broke the cage and knocked down a whole wall." I say. He shakes his head,

"No." he says

"Why?" I ask

"Why, do you want me to?" he chuckles, I shake my head. "Yes I'm extremely pissed but no I'm not going to beat you shitless, it wasn't your fault It was Trevor's plus I would've done it to him but I didn't have the patients to deal with him. Now the question is, where can I put you until we get this fixed?" he asks looking at me. I don't answer I'm too weak to even speak. Rufus sees this and lets me sleep. Why is he acting so…un Rufus like? It's creepy.

Chapter 26

Sarah has been asleep for many hours now and I'm still trying to figure out how she did that glowing thing, and how she broke the cage. We had to move her but she passed out before I could finish talking to her. So I had my men put her in a room with a pole in the middle of the room and chain her leg to it. Ever since then she's stayed in the same position we put her in, laying on her side, her face in her arms and her legs curled up to her chest half way. I've noticed the changes in her sleeping positions are based on the positions she goes in to try and protect herself. One is her curling up into a complete ball, legs tucked under to her chest and arms over her face. I find her in this one quite often, her main one is using her arm as a pillow and the other as a shield in front of her face. This was her first position I've noticed many years ago. This one was to protect her face, I used to always wake her up like this and is the main spot I kick people, the face. Partly because blood comes out quicker and I love to see other bleed in pain. I suddenly hear a quiet knock at my door pulling me out of my thoughts, I look up and see one of my men standing there,

"What?" I spit,

"Um the boy wants to talk to you…sir." He stutters I raise my eye brow.

"Carter?" I confirm, he nods. "Well then." I say getting up and walking down the hall passing Sarah. Who is still fast asleep. "Do me a favor and check her pulse, she hasn't moved in hours." I say to a nearby guard. When I reach the boy's room, he stands up when he sees me walk in. "Sit." I order. He sits, "What do you want?" I spit crossing my arms.

"How's Sarah? Is she ok? Can I see her?" he stutters.

"She's asleep, she's fine and no you can't see her." I answer quickly and turn to leave but the boy stops me.

"Are you ever going to let her go?" he says softly. I sigh in annoyance,

"You know she asked me that the other day, and do you know what I said?" I smile as he shakes his head, "None of your business." I sneer and leave, when I walk back past Sarah, I see that she has moved, her legs are stretched out. I smile and walk in quietly, I crouch down above her, and move her hair and see bloody holes where the spiked chains held her. Same thing with her wrists and ankles. This girl clearly puts her friends before herself. The girl has guts I have to admit that. She's the toughest one out of everyone I've had. But that just means I have to come down on her harder. I turn her on to her back, she winces a little but stays asleep. I pull up her shirt, and I know what you're thinking and no I'm not that kind of guy. But what shocks me is that this girl is 16 years old and she has no breasts. I guess that's a dragon thing I don't know. I pulled up her shirt to see the hundreds of scars, stab wounds, lacerations I've given this girl. The sight doesn't bother me one bit. I can name each scar by what it was made from. Most of them are from whips some are from burns and stab wounds, the child's skin color is no longer a gentle white, now it's covered in bruises, the colors reaching from light purple to black, both on her front and back. Even on her sides. I would be amazed if I can find one dot of her original skin color. I smirk at the sight until I hear a knock at the door. I look over my shoulder and see one of my men

"Um, there is someone here to see you sir." He says. I stand up and walk to the door.

"Let me know when she wakes up. Who is it?" I say

"…Your sister. Sir." I widen my eyes and rush to the main entrance. There I see a grown woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a brown fur coat with blue jeans. Last time I saw Rene was when mom and dad got divorced and I was 11 years old and she was 9.

"Hey Rufus how are you doing?" she smiles. I roll my eyes.

"Hi, what are you doing here?" I ask quickly.

"I'm riding cross country." She smiles happily, "You're still wearing black?" she points to my leather jacket.

"Yes, what do you want?" I spit.

"I saw your car out back, I didn't know you worked here?" she giggles. I rub my temples.

"Look I don't have time for this, and trust me you don't want to be here." I sigh

"Oh really? Then why are you here?" she sasses

"Because I'm sadistic, now if you'll please excuse me, I have work to do. Just try not to do anything stupid." I say walking past her back to Sarah's room.

Chapter 27

I slowly start to come to my senses when I hear Rufus's voice. I gulp weakly sitting up seeing that I was once again chained and in a new room but this one did not have a door.

"Rene please just leave." I hear him say, who's Rene? I look and see Rufus walk in with a lady behind him. I widen my eyes

"Why? I want to see what you do for a living." She giggles looking over his shoulder and her jaw drops.

"I told you. I told you didn't want to be here. But you never listen to me!" he rolls his eyes walking to me. I cower back,

"Why the fuck is she all bloody and bruised?!" Gasps when she sees me, Rufus turns to say something but Rene slaps him, I don't know why I giggled but I did. And the second it escaped my lips I slap my hand over my mouth.

"What the hell Rene?!" he shouts,

"Did you do this to her?!" she says clearly upset,

"No, the ginger bread man did, yes I did this to her, why do you think mom and dad kicked me out after they found the neighbor's blood on my hands in 5th grade?" he says in annoyance.

"Yeah I'm still surprised the cops haven't found you." She says walking to me, I flinch back.

"Oh I wouldn't get near her if I were you." He warns.

"Why?" Rene bends down in front of me lifting my chin up. I cower, "What's so dangerous about her?" she smirks, her smirk is just like Rufus's.

"Oh you'd be surprised, you saw the wall out there right?" He points, Rene nods standing back up. He points to me.

"She did it? Oh sure." She says in disbelief. Rufus shakes his head walking to me. I shake my head and cower, he bends down and unlocks my chain yanking me up harshly, I yelp at the sudden pain. He pushes me past Rene and down the hall to the torn wall, which is in the process of being rebuilt. We walk over the wall and into the middle of the large room where the cage is still on its side. Rufus pushes me onto my knees, and I let myself fall the rest of the way, Rufus keeps his eyes on me.

"Your saying this little girl did all this?" Rene repeats.

"Still don't believe me?" Rufus says smiling at me, I know what he's thinking and I shake my head no feeling a tear slide down. "Show her Sarah, show her what you really are." He purrs. I look at Rene and back at Rufus, Rene sees my fear of him and tries to step in.

"Rufus-" She tries but he cuts her off.

"What's the matter, Sarah? Too ashamed to show your real self?" he laughs getting closer. To be honest, yes I was. He bends down as I cower on to my back,

"Rufus maybe you should just-" Rufus puts his finger up,

"Come on Sarah just real quick." He purrs, I shake my head opening my mouth. He see this, and smiles.

"What is it?" he coos

"I-…" I can't say it, I'm too scared

"You what?" he huffs

"I… can't." I whimper shielding my face preparing myself for a beating. And I was right, I'm suddenly kicked hard in the ribs and gut. "AH!" I yelp scooting away,

"Why!" he shouts I flinch

"When Nova is injured to a certain extent, she needs time to heal same thing with Sarah!" I quickly explain shaking. Rufus backs down momentarily,

"Ah, yes even lizards need to heal." He growls. I hate It when he calls me that, he roughly picks me up and drags me back to the room with the pole and chains me back up. "Come Rene I'll show what I got on video." He shows Rene out. She glances at me before leaving. All I do is curl up into my ball.

Chapter 28

I have my sister watch the footage from earlier, she jumps when the hallway cam shook as the wall was torn down and Sarah barges out in her glowing state, which I still need to figure out how that happened. When the video is done Rene turns around, her jaw draped open. I smirk crossing my arms,

"Still don't believe me?" I sneer.

"All that? That was her?" she gasps, I nod. "But how is she not dead yet?"

"She's immortal like me but she's a dragon too." I start,

"So she's an immortal dragon?" she clarifies, I nod. "Oh my gosh Rufus, the things you find…" She shakes her head walking out of my office, I follow. After several hours of her nonstop nagging she finally left. I suddenly hear a scream. God can't I get break? I huff and walk to Sarah's room to see her fast asleep, I assumed it was her but when I hear it again I look to the left and see Fay. Fay?

"What's she doing here?" I spit walking to her. She starts whimpering and struggling to get away.

"They didn't want her." Says Tanner who's holding Fay. I go to say something but she continues to whimper,

"Will you shut up? Why didn't they want her?" I huff, she stops for the moment,

"I don't know they just said come and get her." He continues. "So where are going to put her?" I look at her a few seconds, I can see her gulp slightly.

"We have nowhere to put her, she knocked it all down." I explain pointing to Sarah's room.

"What about with the boy?" he asks. I shake my head. "Sarah?" he trails off, knowing that was a stupid question to ask me. I just look at him, "Yeah your right." He chuckles nervously. I look at the girl again,

"Just give her to me, I'll figure something out." Tanner hands me the girl who starts to squirm the second I grab her arm. I yank her close, "Unless you want to end up a bloody mess. I suggest you come with me peacefully." I hiss in her ear. She gulps hard and stops, walking by my side. Where am I going to put her? The more I think about it, I might have to put her with Sarah. But that risks her going crazy again. I'll have to take that risk for now. I pull over one of my men passing by and whisper in their ear not wanting the little girl to hear. "Do me a favor and grab another chain and cuff and bolt it on the back wall in Sarah's room." he nods walking away. In the mean time I walk her over to the wrecked room and I turn on the computer, I hear her gasp a little. I look down and see her looking at the mess. I smirk looking back at the computer seeing if there is some way we can control Sarah's sudden out bursts. Soon the man came back telling me it was ready. I nod and dismiss him. I walk over back to Sarah's room and we walk in. Fay gasps at her condition, and starts to struggle again. I roll my eyes and throw her on the ground next to the newly bolted chain and cuff her ankle and leave, god I hate little kids.

I don't know how long I was asleep but was surprised to see Fay sitting next to me. I sit up weakly and rub my eyes as I notice she too was chained.

"Fay?" I whisper knowing Rufus's rule for me that whenever I have someone with me I'm never to talk to them, unless told to which I'm never told. She flutters her eyes open and smile looking at me. She goes to say something but I stop her, "Shh, we can't let anyone hear us, especially Rufus." I say quickly. She nods,

"You're a human?!" she whispers. I smile and nod,

"Yeah, half dragon and half human. I thought you were gone?" I say looking at the door way making sure no one was coming.

"They didn't want me so they sent me back here." She explains

"Are you ok, did he hurt you?" I ask looking her down. She nods,

"Yes I'm ok. But you don't look ok." She trails off. I sigh

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me, I'll protect you, we'll find a way out. All three of us." I say trying not to sound so down.

"Three?" she says confused,

"Me, you and Carter, he's in another room." I clarify. I hope he is. I'm about to say something else when I hear talking down the hall. Fay whimpers, I look at her and mouth, 'It'll be ok.' She nods, a few men walk past and one looks in and smile.

"Hey boss, the lizards' awake." He says as the others laugh. I sigh, I hate it when they call me that. I shakily sit up all the way, using the pole to support myself. After a few seconds Rufus comes in.

"Ha-ha very funny." He says sarcastically. "Shut up." He says as I can faintly hear their laughter fade away. He shakes his head turning to us. "Well, how are we this fine evening?" he sneers rubbing his hands together. I stiffen as he walks to me. He crouches down in front of both of us. "You've been sleeping a lot lately Sarah, is everything ok?" he asks, I can't tell if he's for real or what.

"…I'm just tired…" I say quietly. He nods not satisfied.

"Somehow I think there's more to that." He says glancing at Fay. I shake my head, looking down. "Are you really going to lie to me? Come on Sarah I've known you since you were 14." He states

"Don't remind me." I mumble under my breath,

"What was that?" he perks his head up. I shake my head, "No, what did you say?" he spits

"I said don't remind me." I say a little louder. He smirks,

"Then tell me why you've been sleeping so much." He repeats, I go to open my mouth but he cuts me off, "And don't tell me you're just tired."

"…I don't know, because I'm dying? I don't know." I really don't know. He laughs sending chills down my spine and I'm pretty sure Fay's too.

"Silly girl, you're not dying. You can't die." He chuckles.

"One day…" I trail off. He just shakes his head and turns to Fay.

"And what about you? How are you doing?" he coos. Fay shrinks back looking at me, I flinch forward. And he sees this in the corner of his eye, "Sarah…" he warns, still looking at Fay. I just stare at him.

"…Um.. I- I'm fine." She stutters, Rufus smirks

"Well you didn't seem fine when I came in." He leans in, "So are you going to lie to me too?" I hear her gulp.

"Fine! I'm scared ok?" she starts to cry. Rufus smiles widely standing up.

"There you go, see? Telling the truth isn't that hard now is it?" he chuckles walking around the room. "See Sarah? Even a six year old can tell the truth." He sneers. I frown,

"Fuck off!" I spit.

"Oooh, right in front of the kid." He snickers.

"What do you want?!" cries Fay. Rufus turns around, and walks to her, I flinch feeling the inside of me start to change. I try to fight it off, knowing that's what Rufus wants. Instead, I grit my teeth.

"I want you to know what you are befriending." He hisses looking at me. I glare at him, but notice my vision starts to change. I shut my eyes rubbing them, Rufus laughs as he starts to see my skin slowly change to scales. I scratch it trying to scrape them off. I fight desperately not to become Nova. Eventually it works, Nova goes away, for now. I pant in pain, it hurts to become Nova, my whole body changes. I hear Rufus laugh. "I see you're learning to control yourself Sarah." He sneers. I squeeze my eyes shut, and moan in pain. He shifts position facing me. He wants me to be Nova. "Show her what you really are…" he starts, I shoot back grasping my head, "Show her you're not a human!" he raises his voice standing up.

"RRAAH! Shut up!" I shout feeling my claws form. I grasp the pole so I don't impale my head. I then feel my teeth growing.

"Show her you're a fucking lizard!" he shouts. I roll onto my side and see the men from earlier standing the door way. Fay scooted as far as the chain would let her, my feet grow claws. My skin turns into black shiny scales, my stomach turns into a bright green and my spine extends into my tail, my face extends out. But my wings are the worst. This I try so hard to keep from coming.

"A lizard waiting to be tortured, waiting to suffer for being a freak, a worthless living creature, that lives forever!" he shouts. I finally screech in pain as my wings finally emerge out my back. I rake my claws in the floor in pure agony, the cuff still fits around my ankle, at least I'm human size. "You have no one! No family! No friends! NO ONE!" he roars laughing hysterically. I never cried as Nova I didn't even know she could but I find out she can. Because my eyes flood with tears knowing everything he said is true. I look at Fay, she's curled in a tight ball too scared to move. She's seen me as Nava so has Rufus, but neither has seen me transform into her. I guess that was Rufus's plan. But I know there's more to it. His laugh dies down to a low, deep chuckle as he walks to me. I cower growling in fear. There's a big difference between the fear growl and angry growl. The angry one is low and long lasting and the fear one is a somewhat higher growl and short reapetive. Rufus has learned the difference between the two.

"Aww poor big lizard scared of the big man," he coos stomping hard on my right wing and left so he's standing over me. I wince as it feels like he's slowly ripping off your ear. I grab his legs but let go when he starts to twist his foot. I screech in pain, I go to bite him but he kicks my jaw, knocking out a side tooth. It lands a few feet away as I feel blood drip down my mouth. I look at him in fear. "You're a fucking dragon damn it, you're not supposed to be scared of anything." He states, "But dragons are lizards, and some lizards aren't scared of shit, but you're not one of them, and you never will be." He trails off pulling out a small but sharp knife and throws it on the tip of my wing, I cry in pain as he drags it downwards and does the same to the other but this one he actually cuts off a small piece of my left wing and takes it for himself, leaving. The men at the door scatter away when Rufus turns around. The second he leaves I close my wings tightly against my body and curl up. Why is this happening to me?

Chapter 29

I sit like this for many hours and soon fall asleep. But when I wake up Fay's gone, again. I stand up and run to the door, but am yanked back.

"FAY!" I roar. No one replies, I cry and wrap myself around the pole, I look at my cut wings, and they aren't bad enough to where I can't fly. That's good I guess, taking a look at the one Rufus cut a piece off. The piece was triangular and taken from the bottom. Blood is dried around the edge, at least it's healing. But why did Rufus want a piece of my wing? I sigh not worrying about it for now and turn my back to the door. After a few hours I'm half asleep when the power goes out. I lift my head up and look behind me half asleep. The room and hallway are dark. But I have thermal heat vision so it wasn't a problem to see, I see men run back and forth outside and eventually the lights come back on and my vision becomes normal. I lay my head back down and start to fall back to sleep. When I hear men stop at the door, I look over and see it's the morons from earlier. I lay my head back down, what do they want? "Look at the big bad lizard, all chained up." I hear one guy say.

"Over powered by the world's most dangerous man," says another.

"You're a fucking lizard!" says the first guy. I snap, jumping up and spinning around so quick the first guy didn't have time to back up. I bite his leg and drag him to me, "AAAAHHH! AHHAHAA" He screams in pain as he tries to fight me. But I only bite down harder, the other men call for back up and within a few minutes at least 11 men were in the room, trying to open my mouth and pull the guy's leg out but I would only go for the hand that that touches me, and that's all of them.

"RUFUS! RUFUS!" they shout, I pay their pleads no attention and open my wings as they try to avoid being bit. Just when the guy is about to pass out from blood loss Rufus comes barging in through the crowd and kicks my jaw, at first I thought it was one of the men and got to bite them but freeze when I see its Rufus,

"Go ahead, I dare you." He growls. I clamp my mouth shut as men help the guy I almost killed, "I want her legs and neck firmly chained down." he spits looking at the injured man. "And I want him taken to the care unit, I'll meet you there." He orders and walks to me but stops one of the men. "What the hell happened?" he hisses,

"Tanner came in she just snapped." He explained. Not true! I roar loudly and went to attack him.

"SHUT UP!" Rufus shouts grabbing his gun and shoots my back leg, I screech as that leg gave out and I collapse. "What the hell has gotten into you?!" he spits. What has gotten into me? I try not to let that bother me. Just then men come in with more chains and bolts. "Now Sarah, are you going to behave?" He says taking a chain. Nope, I'm not going to be chained down, I growl. Rufus gives them the go ahead, and they walk to me with the chains held up, Rufus leading them. I lower my head and arch my back, raising my wings. Letting out a deep growl, the men stop for a minute but continue. I open my mouth showing my teeth covered in the man's blood. The men spread out and surround me. I back myself up into the wall as they close in on me. "Now!" Rufus shouts, and all at once the men pounce on me, holding me down, I squirm all over the place as they lose their grips but return, when I feel my other ankle cuffed I go to attack him but one puts a cuff around my neck and yanks my head. Pulling me forward not letting me turn my head, but I forgot I recently learned how to breathe fire. I open my mouth, but Rufus sees this and clamps my mouth shut. "Don't you even think about it." he hisses, I shake my head rapidly side to side. I growl like no other, let go of me! But he holds on tighter and puts his weight on me. Finally I collapse from all the weight, as the men get off my body after I'm fully chained, but Rufus stays on my mouth. "Now theses chains are retractable, meaning I can hold you down completely against your will. But that's nothing new is it?" he bellows and stands up, I go to attack him but the chains yank me back and retract like Rufus said, so close to the ground I can't take two steps. But there is enough slack for me to lay down, but not comfortably. But that's not my concern right now, right now I HAD to get out of here.

Chapter 30

I walk down the hall to the care unit, where all my men are filled in the room. When they see me coming they make a path for me. I walk in and see Tanner laying on the table with towels on his leg drenched in dark blood.

"Rufus, I'm sorry for making her mad-"he starts but I cut him off.

"What happened?" I repeat.

"…I was teasing her, saying she was a lizard." He said. I look at the man that told me the other story, he gulped backing away.

"So you lied." Is all I have to say for him to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness. My men know that if they lie to me they're dead. I reach into my back pocket and take out my gun, and place the barrel on his forehead. I turn off the safety lock and get ready to pull the trigger, when Tanner stopped me.

"Rufus, It was my fault I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone in there without you." He pleads. I look at him than Ron who's on his knees, "Very well, no one dies today, but I want absolutely no one to step foot in there ever again unless I say so, do I make myself 100% crystal clear?" I growl.

"Yes sir." They say in unison. I nod and leave, walking past Sarah who continues to pull on the chains, when she sees me walk by she growls. I simply shake my head and continue walking to my office, there I sit down and turn on the cameras to the building. But when I do I see Carter is not in his room and his door is wide open, I shoot up and go to his room. Seeing the door's hinges have been broken off, I go back to my office and rewind the tape to where I see him. He's messing with the door and see he's been working on it a while. Finally he breaks the hinges and runs out. I switch to the hall cameras and see him run down the main hall towards the entrance. So go to the main entrance camera and see him run into Sarah's room. What is this boy up to? I get up and walk to Sarah's room.

I continue to pull on the chains, biting them. Nothing, just then Rufus runs in my room I stop looking at him, what? I grunt.

"The boy, Carter, where is he?" I spit walking in, I give him a questioned look, Carter never came in here. I shake my head, "Where is he?" he gets louder, I think about Sarah and find myself turning back into her, but the chains are still attached to me.

"He never came in here," I spit,

"Yes he did, he's missing and the cameras show him coming in here, where is he?" he starts to raise his voice.

"Well if he did come in here I was asleep, considering that's what I do half my life!" I shout. He walks out shouting demands. I panic and turn back into Nova and struggle like no other, CARTER! I roar. Then it dawned on me, I can burn the chains, so I open my mouth and start to slowly heat the metal, knowing it would hurt but I can melt them. This takes hours to do but they eventually melt off. I'm human size so I won't break anything, and I'm staying Nova, because she can come in handy. I walk out the room and peek my head out. No one, good. I walk out and climb up the wall and on the ceiling, cool I thought, I have gecko feet. I walk upside down and look for him, but can't find him anywhere. I start to get worried. Soon I decide to sneak out the front and fly on top of the building. I take a minute and breathe in the fresh midnight air, it's been so long since I've been outside. I shake my head and remember what I'm doing. I look around on the roof and see that there is a long row of sun roofs, perfect. I walk to the first one and look in it, an empty room. I walk past that one and to the second, empty room. The next one was an office, a group of men were in there chilling. I walk to the next one and see it's the man I bit. He was on a table with a pile of bloody towels and the man the Rufus pulled over before he left. The man I bit lifted the towel and I saw the damage I did, it was like stab wounds were impaled and dragged around his leg. There was no doubt he was going to lose his leg. I feel somewhat sorry but at the same time not sorry. I sigh and move on, and come across Rufus's office. And he's in there, I quickly duck down and see him looking at his cameras. I see him looking at Carter, and that he ran out the front entrance after going into my room, so he did go in there. I waste no time and fly off the roof, careful not to make noise.

I use my thermal heat vision and look for any sign of heat for hours. Nothing, soon I gradually start to see small bits and pieces of them, I quicken my pace, but crash into a tower, breaking through the windows, I roll on the floor to a stop. Standing up I shakes the glass off, my skin not effected do to my scales. I look around for a minute, I don't remember the last time I was in a place like this. I walk to the broken window and look out. I'm in a city, I turn off my heat vision and let the lights of the city guide me. I fly out the tower and to the top. I sit on the edge and look at the moving cars, hearing sirens and honking. Boy I missed the sound of the city. But the only problem was how was I going to find Carter in this mess? Well for one I have to be human to blend in, so I fly down into the ally and change. This done I run out the ally and run down the street. This thankfully is pretty much empty, but wait, I'm a bloody mess, my clothes are torn and stained, there's no doubt I'm going to stand out. I have to get some new clothes, and I know just where to look. The store. I saw one a few blocks down before I crashed so it's not that far. It only takes a few minutes to get there. But how am I going to get in? I look around and walk to the back and see the back door was a crack open. Yes, I open it and walk in, seeing the amount of clothes overwhelms me, fresh clean clothes. I can't spend too much time here or someone will catch me so I take something simple. A pair of gym shorts and a white t shirt. I don't bother taking shoes do to the fact even in human form the bottom of my feet are scales but the scales match the color of my skin in human form. As I walk down the street I notice someone heading my way, I stop in my tracks and gulp, is it him? I slowly start to change. But as it got closer they shouted my name.

"SARAH!" they ran towards me, I'd know that voice anywhere,

"CARTER!" I yell running to him. I practically knocked him off his feet and we tumbled down to the floor.

"Oh my god I thought I would never see you again." I cry and hug him, and for the first time, I found us kissing. I look at him as he does the same and we smile. We go to kiss again when we here a loud alarm go off. I look behind us and see the police pull up to a pawn shop, we run and escape the scene, "Where are we going to go now?" I say catching my breath.

Chapter 31

While looking on the cameras I'm interrupted by one of my men.

"SIR! We got really bad news!" he says out of breathe, I roll my eyes and turn around.

"The boy is gone I know." I say tiredly,

"That's not it sir… so is the girl." He trails off. My face drops.

"WHAT!?" I shout so loud the room and hallway echoes.

"Sh-sh-she's gone… sir." He whimpers. I snap and flip the whole desk over sending papers and pens flying and tipping the computer over. Luckily the computer didn't break.

"I want her and the boy found immediately, search every square inch of this state, I don't care, but I want them found NOW, I want everyone in this building looking for them, I want every weapon used on her if she doesn't come peacefully and she won't. You will stop at nothing to get them, do I make myself CLEAR!" I demand, he backs up and nods running out of the room. I turn to the desk on its side, that child has gotten on my last nerve.

Me and Carter have been walking the empty streets for hours now, and it's almost sunrise, cars are slowly starting to appear on the roads, and every one we see we make sure it's not Rufus. So far no sign of him. That's good. Soon we come upon a local park where I see a police officer I recognize from when I used to go to school, and we did not get a long at all. We always butted heads, he was talking to another cop. I was hoping he didn't see or recognize me but he did, because he called my name. I pretended not to hear him but Carter heard him too and stopped me. I shook my head at Carter he caught the message and we go to make a run for it but he grabbed my arm sending searing pain through my arm.

"AAH!" I yelp yanking away and see the other cop had a hold of Carter. My vision flickers and Carter see this,

"Stay calm I'm ok, its ok stay calm please!" he tries to calm me down and it works, the cop that had me turned me to face him. I look at his badge remembering his name, Kris.

"Sarah?" he says to me in disbelief, I nod. He suddenly pulls me into a hug.

"Whoa what's going on here?" I say pulling away,

"Oh my god, Sarah do you realize how long you were missing?" Kris begins, the other cop lets go of Carter and I calm down more. I shake my head, "You've been an Amber Alert for over 6 years." He says looking me over, I widen my eyes and feel tears begin to form. Carter sees this and pulls me in to a hug of his own. I couldn't hold them in and start to bawl on his shoulder,

"Has he had me this long?" I cry quietly in his ear.

"I guess so… "He sniffs, the other cop across from me who I learn is Hooden sees my scarred up face.

"Hey come here." He says I hesitate but go to him. He lifts up my chin, a small whimper escapes my lips, they both hear this. "Hey take it easy. What the hell happened to you?" he says, I look at Carter and he looked at me. Apparently we were thinking the same thing and we shook out heads, Kris sees this.

"What happened Sarah? And I want the truth." He says crossing his arms. I look at Carter again, "Stop looking at him and look at me." he spits, I suddenly get defensive and snap at him.

"Ok since when did you start caring about my well-being Kris?" I hiss

"Since I started wearing this badge now please tell me what happened, where did you get all these cuts from?" he says again

"Come on Sarah, we have to tell them." Carter says, I frown

"No I can't just tell him,…" I stutter but Carter takes over,

"We need your help…badly." He trails off looking at me worried, thinking I would get mad at him, I never will. He knows what I'm afraid of.

"Why?" Hooden says.

"Our families have been killed and we need some place to stay for a while." Carter says. I sigh in relief. The two officers look at each other.

"You two can come stay with me for a while till we figure something out. But Sarah," Kris pauses, "You have to let me help you for once." He says.

"I can't make any promises." I say as we go to his cruiser and climb in the back.

Chapter 32

It feels weird to be in Kris's house, let alone a house. For cells are all I knew for over 6 years. As we walk into his house the first thing I see is a couch. I zone the rest of the world out and walk to the couch, and touch it. Fabric, the feeling of something other than cold cement, rusty cold chains is like touching a bunny for the first time ever.

"Uh.. you ok Sarah?" Kris chuckles. I nod not taking my eyes or hand off the couch. "Any way you want to see where you guys will be sleeping?" Suddenly we both blurt out,

"YES!" at the same time but relies what we did and change it to. "Sure." Kris looks at us strangely but leads us up stairs to the guest room and leaves after telling us his wife will be home soon. We waste no time and collapse on the bed not bothering to go under the covers.

I don't know how long we were sleep but apparently Carter woke up before me cause when I turn over I had more room on the bed. I lay there looking at the ceiling thinking to myself, how long has it really been since I was in a house? I mean like a real house, for cells are the only houses I knew ever since I was 14. Suddenly I hear a knock at the door breaking me out of my thoughts. I look and see it was Kris, I roll my eyes and turn away from the door. I hear him sigh.

"Sarah…I know you're going through a lot right now and this is a lot to take in so sudden but please tell me just a little bit what happened." He explains, I shake my head in confusion.

"I can't say what happened, I can't trust anyone anymore Kris." I say my voice muffled in the pillow.

"Not even a police officer?" he says. I sit up shaking my head,

"No one but Carter." I sigh,

"Why him?" he sits on the end of the bed.

"Because he knows the real me and I know he won't let anyone hurt me." I say looking out the window.

"Why would anyone want to hurt you?" he says tilting his head a little.

"You'd be surprised." I finish and walk out the room.

By the time its sun set my men and I have reached a city,

"Shit." I curse under my breath, how am I going to find her in this mess? Soon we come upon a bar and stop there. When we walk in half of them split up and the others come with me to the bar tender. We all order a drink. As I was waiting I pull out part of her wing I cut off and look at it. Think, I say to myself, think. How can I find her in this damn city? Then breaking me out of my thoughts one of my men tap my shoulder and point to the TV.

"We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news. Around 3:00 in the morning last night city hall was crashed into by what seems to be some sort of very large flying creature. The office's security camera catches this footage." Says the reporter. It then shows something crashing into the windows, shattering them into pieces, when the thing landed, I spotted wings and a tail. Sarah. I waste no time and gather my men and leave. You better be ready Sarah, I'm not going easy on you this time, not ever again.

Chapter 33

Its dinner time and I'm on my way back to the house when Carter stops me from the front.

"What's the matter?" I say,

"Come with me quick!" he says pulling my arm to follow him, I do.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"We got to go!" he says.

"What? Why?" I say shocked.

"You're on the news, Nova crashed in to city hall." He explains,

"Shit!" I say and pick up the pace. We go to run across the street when a car comes out of nowhere and hits me. The car screeches to a stop but the person doesn't open the door. Carter rushes over and helps me up. I look for any wounds, just a skinned knee, elbow and eyebrow. I shake it off but gasp when I see what I did to the front of the car, it had a huge dent where it hit me, oops. I look at the driver and widen my eyes. Carter sees who it is and pulls me away as the driver slams his gas and we run,

"How did Rufus find us!?" I panic,

"Whatever you do don't go dragon, not in broad day light!" says Carter,

"Then how are we supposed to get away from him!?" I breathe trying not to change. The car is gaining on us, "Fuck it!" I shout and change picking up Carter and shoot into the air. Suddenly I'm shot in the shoulder, I wince and quicken the pace. I look down and see he stopped his car and stepped out pointing a gun at me. Carter saw this,

"NOVA!" he shouts. I go high in the sky to get out of range but he was too good at aiming and shoots me many times. I try to stay up but when he shoots my wings they get too damaged to stay afloat and we start falling. I change in to Sarah in mid-air and we scream as we fall faster.

"AAAHHHH!" We cry at the same time as the ground comes closer and closer until everything goes black.

Once we got the brats on the truck and tied, we head back to headquarters, when we arrive they are taken to their rooms and chained tightly, and Sarah's cage has been fixed so we put her in there. I've upgraded the cage as well, if she touches the bars they will electrocute her and set off an alarm, plus they are covered in barbed wire. They both landed on a city bus, Sarah was fine just a few broken bones and cuts, but as for Carter, he probably won't last much longer. I won't tell her for a while knowing the outcome. She's been out for days now and finally she shows a little movement on the camera. I waste no time and walk to her room.

I flicker my eyes open and my vision is blurry but goes away soon. I see that I'm back in the cage. A rush of fear and anger explode inside and I scream echoing the room. I pound my fist on the concrete feeling my knuckles crack. I curse to myself, standing up and grasp the bars. I didn't expect them to cut and electrocute me followed by an ear piercing alarm. They turn off after about a minute and the room door opens. I look and see Rufus walk in. Pissed. I gulp, backing up. He presses something in his hand and two chains come out of the ground and lock around my wrists pulling me down on to my knees. I struggle to slip out of them but find out they're the spiked cuffs and I start to bleed. I look at him as he walks up to the cage, and steps on something on the floor. And a control panel rises out of the ground. He presses something and a glass wall rises outside the cage all the way to the top. Then on the edge of the inside of the cage and drain opens up. Water starts to flood the floor, I shake my head and cry. Water starts to fill the tank, when it gets to my neck I take a deep breath as it stops about a foot above my head. I strain to stand up but the cuffs dig into my wrists. Blood fills the water, clouding my vision. Wait! I thought, I can breathe fire maybe I could cause the water to evaporate. I blow out hot steam from my nose at first it scorches the water leaving me with painful burns but then the water turns into fog then to nothing. I gasp deeply and look at my burns than at Rufus.

"Impressive, seems you have learned more about yourself while you were gone." He begins lowering the glass and unlocks the cage walking in. I look up at him as he towers above me.

"Wh…Cater…" I wheeze, Rufus crouches down and lifts my chin up.

"Do you really want to know?" he says. I nod

"Y-es.." I cough,

"I'm afraid your boyfriend won't be with us much longer for when you crashed has him ending up with internal bleeding." He says and gets out of the cage. I widen my eyes and scream witch turns into the most ear piercing roar I ever did, even Rufus is forced to cover his ears and I become the ultimate Nova ever seen. I become the size of a T- rex, breaking the chains but the spiked cuffs are still on. And for the first time ever my vision becomes a dark glowing red. And for the first time ever, Rufus looked terrified. Suddenly Nova shrinks and I'm Sarah again. I cry my eyes out, collapsing on the floor. I hear Rufus pant and then he leaves.

Chapter 34

Never again, I thought. I'm never turning into Nova ever again. I try to help protect others but all I do is kill. I killed the man in the woods trying to save Carter; I almost killed the two boys at the school. I nearly ripped off a guy's leg and now I probably killed Carter. Rufus overpowers me, I'm weak. For days I lay down in the far corner not saying a word, not looking up from the ground, nothing. All I could think about was how stupid I was to believe I was more powerful than Rufus, Victor warned me. Oh Victor, I need you. Suddenly pulling me out of my thoughts I hear the door open, I already know its Rufus so I don't bother to look up. I hear him sigh before speaking,

"Well, the boy is dead." He says quietly. I tear up burring my face in my arms. Just then metal walls collapse down in front of the bars all except the front. I scurry away from the walls and go to stand up but suddenly four chains shoot out from the wall behind me attaching on to my wrists and ankles and pull me back.

"What the… let me go!" I shout struggling. Rufus comes in the cage, and walks up to me.

"Hmm, not likely my dear. Now that we have no distractions, we can get straight down to business." He purrs deeply.

"Please…just leave me alone." I whimper, he smiles walking to the other wall pressing a hidden button allowing a wall of torture devices to rise from the ground.


End file.
